Second Chance
by Advent of Shadows
Summary: During a training accident, Naruto is thrown back twenty years back in time. Stuck in the past with full knowledge of what happened in his time, Naruto embarks upon the path of a legend. Naruto/Mikoto. Note: Just to be on the safe side, Chapter 14 was deleted to stay in the TOS. What is now Chapter 14 was originally 15. All that was really removed was a lemon.
1. Second Chance

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Introduction: It's amazing how much the death of a loved one can change a person. That's actually why I haven't been updating my other stories. It's hard to write them when I was practically a different person when I started them. Hopefully, I'll get back to them sooner or later.

Anyways, this is my first attempt at a time travel fic where Naruto actually joins the Hidden Leaf Village, or any other village, in the past. I have it planned out fairly well, but there are still some things that I'm undecided on at the moment.

Major Pairings: Naruto/Mikoto and Minato/Kushina.

Warnings: Expect spoilers up to Naruto 530 at the very least. There will be lemons in later chapters, but I will make sure to underline and bold lemon warnings before and after each lemon so that you can skip them if you want to.

Summary: A major screw-up on Turtle Island results in Naruto being thrown back in time. How will he cope with his second chance at life? Especially when his parents are his age.

* * *

**1. Second Chance**

"Let's call it good. If ya keep it up, you'll be fox food." Killer Bee said.

"That doesn't even rhyme." Naruto said with a raised eyebrow. He did not know what was worse, whether Bee did not actually rhyme or that he made it sound like good and food rhymed.

"Sure it does. Don't be dissin' the rhymes, cuz." Bee said, earning a face palm from Naruto.

"Man, I'm hungry." Naruto said as he released the fox's chakra and ignored his jinchuriki mentor.

"Let's get something to eat, 'cause we're beat." Bee said as he wrote down that line in his little book.

"Let's go find Captain Yamato or Guy-sensei." Naruto said, trying to tune Bee out.

"They'll be sore from the war, so leave them to rest while we have a fest." Bee said.

"War?" Naruto asked, turning to look at Bee.

"Don't tell me you don't know. Did you just find out from Eight-O?" Bee asked thoughtfully.

"No one told me about a war. What in the hell's going on?" Naruto asked, worry and anger filling his voice.

"Wow, no one told you? Then, I probably wasn't supposed to. Oh well." Bee said with a shrug.

"I'll see you later." Naruto said as he turned away from Bee.

"Suit yourself. Don't trip over an elf."

'Does he have to rhyme that bad?' Naruto thought as he shook his head and began to walk towards the area of the island where Motoi was supposed to be at. Unlike Bee, it was easy to understand a conversation with Motoi.

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me we were fighting a war?" Naruto demanded as he looked Motoi in the eyes. He was not exactly happy that he had only just now learned of what had happened. "And where is Captain Yamato and Guy-sensei?"

Motoi looked surprised by the first question, but he ended up sighing instead of staying surprised. Killer Bee might have been respected and viewed as a hero among heroes by the Hidden Cloud Village, but he had never been known for his ability to keep secrets well. He normally ended up revealing secrets in his rapping. Fortunately, most enemies tuned his rapping out since it was incredibly annoying. If they did not, then it would have been bad news for the Hidden Cloud Village. Either that, or they might learn his shoe size or the distance that he could throw a lightning charged toothpick. Yes, that's right. A lightning charged toothpick.

"Yamato has been captured by the enemy, and Guy went to join up with our forces to take part in the war effort." Motoi answered with a sigh. Since Killer Bee had apparently let the cat out of the bag, he had no reason to hide any more. "And the reason I didn't tell you about the war was because I was ordered not to. We are supposed to be keeping you and Bee out of the enemy's sight until the war is over. If you are captured, then all is lost. You should know that better than anyone. The jinchuriki are vital to Akatsuki's plans."

Naruto looked even more furious at that. He did not like the thought of being protected like he was some kind of delicate object. He alone had defeated Pain, a shinobi that had killed Hanzo the Salamander, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and Kakashi the Copy Ninja. Of course, the last one had been brought back, but that was not the point. The entire point was that Naruto was the strongest shinobi in the Leaf thanks to the fox in his stomach and Sage Mode.

"I can't let you guys hide me away. I have to help." Naruto said as he took a deep breath. "I'm the only one that stands a chance at defeating Madara."

"At your current level, you cannot defeat him." Motoi said firmly. "Continue training with Bee. Once you are able to fully master the technique that Bee has been helping you with, the Five Kage might allow you to take part."

In all honesty, Motoi did not truly believe that they would allow him to take part no matter what. He needed to keep the blond busy though. He would have to figure out a way to stop Naruto from trying to rush into the fray. He knew that it would not be easy. After all, Naruto was stubborn. That much was easy to see already.

"Fine." Naruto said, frustrated. He did not understand why Motoi would not let him leave the island and join up with Kakashi and the others. That was where he should have been, or so he believed. He was not too far off though. It had always been his job to protect those precious to him after all.

As Naruto walked away from the Cloud jonin, he did not realize that everything was about to change in ways that he could not even begin to imagine.

* * *

It was not until he reached the training grounds and entered his new jinchuriki form that he remembered exactly how he learned about the war. It seemed that he had forgotten why he had stopped training until that very moment as well.

'Bee said I needed to take a break for the day unless I wanted the fox to take over my remaining chakra… shit!' Naruto thought as realization hit him.

Everything began to go white as he felt the Nine-Tails steal the last of his chakra.

He should have died at that moment, but time seemed to slow down instead.

"You made a mistake."

Naruto looked around for the disembodied voice, but no one was in the room with him. That did not bother him as much as the fact that he should have died already but was somehow still standing.

"You made a mistake."

'It's that voice again?' Naruto thought, shaking his head.

"You made a mistake."

Realizing that it would not stop until he replied, he said, "I made a mistake."

"It's good to see you can admit as much after you're told three times."

Naruto sighed heavily.

"It's good to see-"

"You don't need to repeat yourself. I heard you the first time." Naruto said as he shook his head. "Who are you? What's going on?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, you were one of the destined children alongside Nagato Uzumaki-"

"Nagato was a member of the Uzumaki clan?" Naruto asked in shock.

"Yes, he was. That's not the point, though. Please stop interrupting me." the disembodied voice said, causing Naruto to raise an eyebrow. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, that's right. You were one of the destined children alongside your kin and fellow apprentice of the Toad Sage. Unfortunately, you both failed horribly."

"What are you talking about?"

"You are both dead, though he is currently in a resurrected state under the control of the one you call Kabuto. Regardless, you both screwed up. You let your emotions get the better of you and allowed the fox to steal all of your chakra while Nagato used up all of his chakra to atone for his sins. Because of your actions, Madara Uchiha's plans will succeed."

Naruto looked down at the floor at that point.

"Back to your question of my identity… I am an emissary. This will be the first and last time that we ever speak. And yes, I know that you are going to ask who I serve. Don't concern yourself with such matters. The simple explanation, and the only one that I will offer you, is that no prophecy can be valid without a force to guide it. If there is no being that guides it, then it is merely a prediction."

Naruto looked confused, but he nodded his head. He kind of understood it but not really well.

"Tell me, Naruto Uzumaki. Do you want to live? Do you want to fight to protect those precious to you? Do you want to bring peace to the world? Do you want a second chance?"

"Yes," Naruto answered, surprised that he spoke without even considering the answer. He knew that there was no reason to answer any other way, but he normally would have thought about it for at least a second.

"That is good to hear, Naruto Uzumaki. There are men who struggle against destiny, and yet achieve only an early grave. There are men who flee destiny, only to have it swallow them whole. And there are men who embrace destiny, and do not show their fear. These are the ones that change the world forever."

'What is _it_ trying to say?' Naruto thought. He found it a bit strange that he still could not tell what gender the voice was. It almost seemed as if the voice spoke within his mind. After all, he could not describe the voice in any manner whatsoever.

"It is not your time to die yet. You still have a destiny to fulfill. Hopefully, you will succeed this time though. After all, you only get one _second chance_."

Before Naruto could respond, everything went completely white.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm actually a bit rusty on my writing. If not, maybe my Killer Bee rhymes would have been decent, or the chapter would have been longer. Oh well, it should be a decent start at the very least.

Feedback on this chapter would be much appreciated. If the disembodied voice annoyed you and it made the chapter horrible, feel free to say so. I don't plan on going back and changing it regardless though.

On another note, I have recently set up a time travel C2 and a new Naruto forum on here. Neither one is too big right now. The forum only has one post, which was done by me.

Anyways, thanks for reading. This chapter was supposed to be up on March 1st, but I started creating a roster of characters for it. I have a list of canon characters to write into this war. To put it simply, I came up with a list of 70+ characters that can be included into this fic without changing anyone's ages or making OC's.

Edit: I previously had a poll on my profile to help me decide on the pairing. Mikoto won with 22 votes, while Tsume was in second with 4 votes and Yoshino was in third with 2 votes. No one voted for "no pairing." The pairing will be Naruto/Mikoto, which works out since Kushina and Mikoto were apparently best friends after the war ended. Please keep in mind that Mikoto will be four years older than Naruto, by the way. This is because of the fact that she was thirty-five when she died, and Naruto is going to the past twenty years before the start of the series. Since she died when Sasuke was seven and he was twelve when the series started, then the Uchiha clan had to have been massacred five years before the start of the series. It's simple math.


	2. A New Day

**2. A New Day**

Naruto Uzumaki slowly sat up as he realized where he was. Upon opening his eyes, he was treated to the sight of a hospital room.

Yawning, he spun to the side and placed his feet on the floor. Attempting to stand up, he quickly found that he was falling forward. He almost hit when a hand appeared before his chest and stopped him.

"Slow down. You've been unconscious for a month. Walking is never easy after such a long time."

The voice sounded familiar, but Naruto could only remember one person with a voice similar to that.

Glancing at the face of the one that caught him, Naruto promptly fainted, leaving a confused Hiruzen Sarutobi holding the body of the sixteen year old boy up.

Hiruzen sighed as he picked Naruto up and set him back on the bed. He was all too familiar with people fainting upon seeing him, especially those not from his village. He was the Professor, the God of Shinobi, and arguably the strongest of the Five Kage. It was hard to tell who was stronger really. Of the Five Kage, only Onoki could have stood a chance against them, and it had been too long since they had last fought for Hiruzen to know who was stronger.

Shaking his head from such thoughts, Hiruzen saw Naruto open his eyes again.

"Are you going to faint again?" Hiruzen asked, purposefully sounding amused.

"No, I'm not planning on it." Naruto said as he shook his head. Looking at the man before him, Naruto was quickly able to determine that he was close to the age that Jiraiya was when they first met, perhaps a year or two younger.

"That's good. I'd like to know how you were able to get into my village." Hiruzen said. It was clear by the stern look in his eyes that it was time for business. "My ANBU found you within the barrier that surrounds this village, but somehow you were able to get in without actually alerting us. The only ways that someone could manage that is if they possessed the codes to bypass the barrier or if they entered through space-time ninjutsu, like the Summoning Jutsu. So how is it that my ANBU found you in my village when there is no record of you entering legally?"

"I don't know." Naruto said, trying to get a grasp on the situation. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a calendar hanging on the wall. It was turned to March, but that was not what caught his attention. What caught his attention was the year.

'Fifty years since the founding of the village… that's impossible… I was born fifty-eight years after the Hidden Leaf Village was founded.' Naruto thought as he saw the year.

"You're obviously telling the truth." Hiruzen said with a frustrated sigh. "I suppose it's possible that your chakra levels were too low for the barrier to detect you. You were found in a small crater on one of the training grounds. You had several broken bones and had less chakra than a civilian should have. You've actually been unconscious for an entire month. The medics did not think you'd pull through. The broken bones were not that big of an issue, but you suffered from extreme chakra exhaustion."

'The damned fox did steal the last of my chakra.' Naruto thought. It had a bit of irony to it.

"I apologize if I came across as rude." Hiruzen said with a deep breath. Things have been tense lately. Last year, one of our chunin was captured by the Hidden Cloud Village, and we almost lost a very important asset to the village. And then two weeks ago, the Third Kazekage apparently went mission."

Naruto's eyes widened. The first reference made him think of how his mother was apparently captured by the Hidden Cloud Village, and the second comment actually made him realize what had happened.

As unrealistic as it sounded, he was in the past. On the first mission after his return to the village, Naruto had met Sasori of the Red Sand, who confessed to turning the Third Kazekage into a puppet. Those actions supposedly started the Third Great Shinobi War.

"Is there a war going on?" Naruto asked carefully.

"No, there isn't a war going on." Hiruzen answered, feeling surprised by the question. "There have been skirmishes between Sand and Rock ninja in the neighboring countries, but that doesn't mean that there will be a war."

Naruto doubted that the Third Hokage believed his own words, but he did not voice his belief.

"Now, before we talk any further, I would like to know who you are. Your appearance doesn't match any in the Bingo Books of any ninja village. And to make things even more complicated, a quick analysis of your blood showed that you have several characteristics unique to the Uzumaki clan, such as a very strong life force. If not for that characteristic, you would likely still be comatose." Hiruzen said.

Naruto did not know what to say at that point. He had no idea that they would have run a blood test on him while he was comatose. He was glad that they did not believe him to be a criminal though.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. To be honest, I only recently found out that there had been an Uzumaki clan though. I just thought it was a family name. I was an orphan after all." Naruto answered carefully. While he was not a very smart person, he knew that revealing too much would have been a bad idea, and the Third Hokage was an expert at telling whether someone was lying or telling the truth.

"That's a pity. It seems that few living Uzumaki know about the Uzumaki clan's fuinjutsu." Hiruzen said sympathetically. "It seems that you are versed in shinobi arts though, even if not fuinjutsu."

Naruto nodded with a ghost of a smile. "Yeah, my godfather took me on as an apprentice. I guess he wanted to make up for not being there when I was growing up." Naruto said; a frown making its way on his face. That was the first time that he had thought about the fact that his godfather had essentially done just as he said. "He was a hermit. He liked to travel, and he was always trying to find the answer to peace."

"What happened to him?" Hiruzen asked, interested.

"One of his students killed him." Naruto said as he looked away. The turmoil within him grew tenfold at the memories of Jiraiya's death.

"I see…." Hiruzen said. The look in Naruto's eyes had reminded him of the look in his own following Tobirama-sensei's death. "Did you ever graduate from a ninja academy and become a ninja of another village?"

"No, I didn't." Naruto answered honestly. He had never graduated from the academy. He was essentially given a field promotion, and he became a ninja of _that_ village, not of _another_ village.

"I see…." Hiruzen said thoughtfully. "With all of the background checks on you coming up blank, it appears that you're clean. There's only one thing left to do…."

Hiruzen Sarutobi was considered a genius, the likes of which came only once a generation. His genius was working at that very moment, which is why he chose his next words. The facts that the boy before him was an Uzumaki, trained in the shinobi arts, and possessed more chakra than Jiraiya influenced his words heavily. The knowledge that war was on the horizon only influenced him further.

"You're only crime is illegally entering the village, though I don't believe you did it of your own free will. Thus, I offer you a choice. You can walk away and leave the village tomorrow, or you can become a ninja of the village." Hiruzen said.

'The Hidden Leaf Village is the strongest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Before the Nine-Tails attacked and the Uchiha clan was massacred, only multiple villages working together stood a chance.' Naruto thought. 'Only a fool would reject his offer. If I didn't want to join before he offered, I'd want to now.' He inwardly chuckled at the thought.

"Do I get one of those shiny forehead protectors?" Naruto asked, making Hiruzen look at him in puzzlement.

"Yeah, you do." Hiruzen said, caught off guard. Didn't all of the villages offer those?

"I'll do it then. I'll join your village." Naruto said with a grin.

"That's good to hear." Hiruzen said. "Tomorrow, you will be pitted against a chunin in a test fight to see where your level of ability resides. I recommend that you get used to walking before then. Otherwise, you might end up a genin instead of your rightful position."

"I'll make sure to do that." Naruto said. "What about my living arrangements? I'll need somewhere to stay."

"You won't be discharged until tomorrow. After the testing match, I'll set you up with an apartment." Hiruzen said. "Is there anything else you'll need?"

"No thanks. I think I'm good." Naruto said.

With that, Hiruzen left the hospital room.

As soon as he shut the door, he thought, 'That went well. Now I just have to figure out how some of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's chakra is mingled with that boy's chakra.'

Shaking his head from those thoughts, Hiruzen said, "Keep a close eye on him at all times. There's something off about him."

"Understood." a man dressed in the attire of ANBU Black Ops said before he merged with the wall.

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry about the shortness of this chapter. I had the first ten chapters planned out in detail, but my computer was infected with a virus and I forgot to save the notepad document containing my notes before I used system restore. It would have been a thousand words longer if I still had those details. Fortunately, I did not lose any of the important details, which is the reason that I was able to put this up so quickly. I have the first thirty chapters planned out clearly already. And just so you know, that's less than a fourth of the entire fic.

Anyways, I'd like to thank everyone for reviewing the first chapter. It's rare for me to get that many reviews for a single chapter in a single day, especially on a first chapter. I hope it continues to happen.

Now, onto the above chapter. The chunin that Naruto has to fight will be revealed in the next chapter while Hiruzen's statement of Naruto possessing a trace of the Nine-Tails chakra will not be explained in depth for a while. The "ANBU" that is watching Naruto will be revealed towards the end of the first arc though.

Since I'm sure I'll be asked about the Kyubi situation, I'll explain it here without going _too_ into detail. Naruto is not a jinchuriki anymore. When he arrived in the past, he lost the Nine-Tails and his ability to summon toads. The simple reason for that is because only one Kyubi can exist at a time and his name is not on the toad contract in this time period. Also, while Naruto is no longer a jinchuriki, he will be similar to Kinkaku and Ginkaku in this fic.

Also, someone asked about Sasuke and Itachi being born in this since Naruto is being paired with their mom. Because of that question, I'd like to point out one thing right now. Time travel is destructive. The past Naruto is in is an AU of sorts. If Minato or Kushina dies, he will not be affected, even if they never have a child. Also, it is entirely possible that Shikaku and Yoshino will have a daughter or Tsume's first child will be a son or Hizashi will have a daughter and Hiashi will have a son. So many things in this world are based on luck or chance. Things don't always work out the exact same way, just like you don't always get the same result when you repeatedly flip a coin.

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing. Please review.

Edit: I have decided that Naruto will eventually get a summoning contract again. I won't reveal what it is for a while though.


	3. Meet the Parents

**3. Meet the Parents**

"Lord Hokage, you request me presence?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the boy standing before him. It was almost as if the fifteen year old boy was the same person as the sixteen year old boy that had just been discharged from the hospital. With their spiky golden blond hair and blue eyes, they could almost pass for brothers.

"Yes, I did." Hiruzen said. He glanced at the window as Jiraiya jumped through it. "You're just in time as well, Jiraiya."

"In time for what?" Jiraiya asked, flabbergasted. He was not used to getting completely caught off guard.

"Minato, I have someone I want you to fight." Hiruzen said, ignoring his student. "I am allowing a wandering shinobi a place in our ranks. Since you are one of your strongest chunin, I would like you to test him. The rules to the fight will be the same as in the Chunin Exams."

Minato slowly nodded, but he looked a bit nervous. "Is there any way that I can do this tomorrow, Lord Hokage?" He sounded… pleading.

"Let me guess… you're supposed to go on a date with Kushina today?" Jiraiya asked, laughing when he saw Minato get a little flushed.

"Kushina is welcome to watch. I'm sure it won't take too long. You'll be free after this fight." Hiruzen said.

"I understand." Minato said, straightening up. "What training ground is it?"

"It will be the Third Training Ground. Be there in one hour." Hiruzen said.

Nodding, Minato took his leave and headed to find Kushina to tell her.

Once Minato was gone, Jiraiya asked, "What's going on? You're letting a wandering ninja join us, and you want Minato to fight him?"

"Let me tell you about Naruto Uzumaki." Hiruzen said with a small smile as he began to recount all that had happened since Naruto's appearance in the village a month ago.

* * *

When Minato and Kushina arrived at the Third Training Ground, they were treated to the sight of Hiruzen Sarutobi and Jiraiya standing under a tree by themselves. No one else was there.

"Are we early?" Kushina asked, looking around.

"You're only a minute or two early." Hiruzen answered. As he spoke, leaves flickered around a new arriver.

Minato and Kushina looked surprised as they saw the new arrival. Clad in black sandals, orange pants, and a black and orange zipped up jacket, a sixteen year old boy with spiky golden blond hair, blue eyes, and whisker-like marks on his cheeks was looking towards them.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki."

Kushina actually staggered back at the clan name. She had not seen another Uzumaki since Mito's death.

"I'm Minato Namikaze, Chunin of the Hidden Leaf." Minato replied as he looked Naruto over carefully. He thought he saw a trace of fear in the boy's eyes, which did not make sense to him.

"I'm testing him?" Minato asked as he kept his eyes focused on Naruto.

"Yes, you are. I'll be acting as the proctor." Jiraiya said. "The rules have already been explained to both of you. The match will end when a clear winner is determined through surrender, incapacitation, death, or my decision. I'll make sure to step in before anyone dies though."

"I understand, sensei." Minato said.

"I understand, Lord Jiraiya." Naruto said. The title sounded forced out of his mouth. They had no idea how hard it was for Naruto not to call Jiraiya by the affectionate nickname of 'Pervy Sage.'

"Kushina, stay on the sidelines." Jiraiya said. "Minato, Naruto, you may begin when ready."

As soon as Kushina went to stand to the side, Minato and Naruto whipped out a single kunai each and used chakra enhanced dashes to close the distance between them.

Kushina's eyes widened as she saw Minato jumping backwards with half of a kunai in his hand. In addition to that, his jacket was cut on his right sleeve and his arm was bleeding a little.

"You're a wind type." Minato said as he looked at the destroyed kunai in his right hand. "I've never met anyone skilled enough with wind chakra to be able to use it efficiently as a chakra flow technique."

"It's called the Flying Swallow. I was taught to use it before I mastered wind chakra." Naruto replied with a small smile.

"That's good." Minato said as he cast aside the kunai and drew another one. "I call this 'Shock Blade.'" With that, Minato's new kunai sparked with electricity.

In an instant, the blonds crossed kunai again, but their kunai actually stopped upon meeting that time.

"Wind beats lightning, but it seems that you're more experienced with your affinity than I am." Naruto said as he jumped back. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised though. I only mastered it a few months ago."

Minato's eyes widened at that statement, along with those of everyone else present. It was almost unheard of for someone to be able to use wind chakra so effectively after only a few months of training to use it.

A smile formed on Minato's face at that moment as he realized what the current situation actually meant.

Though he was still only a chunin, Minato had yet to enter a fight where he was not guaranteed success. He had never been bested. No one in the Academy, or in the Chunin Exams for that matter, had ever come close to defeating him. The closest that he had ever come to being defeated was when he went to rescue Kushina from the Cloud ninja that kidnapped her. Outnumbered for three chunin and a jonin, Minato had come out on top without any injuries outside of soreness and bruises.

Cutting the lightning chakra to his kunai, Minato threw it towards Naruto and quickly flashed through hand signs. "Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu"

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the single kunai turn into twenty-five. He could tell that dodging that many would have been difficult.

The former jinchuriki channeled chakra into his feet immediately and used a chakra enhanced jump to dodge the barrage of kunai. He then formed a hand sign that made Hiruzen smile and Jiraiya look nervous.

"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu" Naruto said. In an instant, one hundred clones formed in the air around him.

"Flying Swallow Barrage" Naruto said as he threw his wind chakra coated kunai at Minato. All of his clones did the same.

Minato's eyes widened at the sheer number of clones, but he regained self-control upon seeing that he was in a tight spot.

"Ninja Art: Shock Blade Shadow Clone Jutsu" Minato said as he threw a lightning chakra coated kunai and formed the hand signs. In an instant, one hundred copies of the thrown kunai appeared to counter Naruto's.

Kushina was taken aback by the skill in creating the exact number of kunai to counter Naruto's, along with creating them in the exact spots to deflect them. She knew that Minato was good, but she had yet to see him fight with as much force as he was using at that moment.

"Lightning Style: Field of Pain" Minato quickly said as he flashed through another set of hand signs and slammed his hands to the ground. In an instant, a beam of lightning shot up at Naruto from the ground and expanded into a field of electricity that encompassed the entirety of where the clones were.

"You're good, but I'm better." Naruto said as a kunai appeared at Minato's throat.

'How did he get behind me?' Minato thought in confusion and slight awe.

"I have a jutsu with the word pain in it as well. Let me show you it." Naruto said as he suddenly let go of the kunai and spun around, forming the tiger hand sign. "Secret Finger Jutsu: One Thousand Years of Pain"

Minato caught Naruto's falling kunai, but he was unable to spin around before he felt a disturbing intrusion into his rectum.

As Minato soared through the air as a result of a chakra enhance kancho, the observers revealed a mixture of blushing and face palming.

'Did he just stick his fingers into Minato's… rectum… and send him flying?' Kushina thought as she blushed. She had never heard of such a technique.

'Damn, my student fell for that? There's no way!' Jiraiya thought in a mixture of shock and amazement.

'I should be shocked or appalled. Why am I not?' Hiruzen thought as he shook his head.

"Be warned. That technique occasionally causes constipation and embarrassment." Naruto said with a chuckle.

"Die!" Minato yelled as he pointed a lightning coated hand towards Naruto. In an instant, a wolf made of lightning was formed and began to rush towards Naruto.

"Come get me." Naruto said as he motioned towards his torso. "I won't even move."

That only seemed to enrage Minato further.

Jiraiya was about to intervene when he saw his sensei shake his head.

As the wolf of lightning hit Naruto, he was replaced with log that seemed to partially explode from the intensity of lightning chakra hitting it.

"Don't trust your enemy." Naruto said as he placed a kunai to Minato's back. "My sensei taught me that this is where the right kidney is located. If I were to bury this in your kidney, you would feel so much pain that you could not even scream. The muscles in your jaw would constrict, and you would die without a sound louder than a whimper."

Minato tensed at the pressure of the point of the kunai to his lower back.

"I would not have even needed wind chakra to kill you." Naruto said simply before he jumped back. "That is twice that I have had your life in my hands. Shall we make it a third?"

"There won't be any need for that." Minato said as he took a deep breath. "I lost myself. You're good. But…" Naruto felt a kunai touch his side, right between two ribs. "I'm better."

"Actually, I am." Naruto said from behind the Minato that just had a kunai to his side. "I almost didn't notice you substitute with a shadow clone when I jumped back. Almost only counts in horseshoes and paper bombs though."

With that, the Minato that stood a ways from Naruto's shadow clone dispelled, as did said shadow clone of Naruto.

"This match is over." Jiraiya said, catching everyone's attention. "Uzumaki, is there a reason that you only used the Shadow Clone Jutsu, the Flying Sparrow, the Substitution Jutsu, and the Body Flicker Technique? Surely you know other jutsu that you could have used."

"Actually… I don't. I can't use any more jutsu, unless you want to see my Transformation Jutsu or my Sexy Jutsu, but I won't use that one in front of a redhead. They hit hard." Naruto said with a grin as he scratched the back of his head.

'The Rasengan hasn't been invented yet, so I can't use it. Not yet, at least. And using Sage Mode is definitely something I can't use. It would make Pervy Sage realize that something is off about me.' Naruto thought.

"What's this Sexy Jutsu of yours?" Jiraiya asked, looking interested.

"Minato, you can leave with Kushina." Hiruzen said, realizing that the older blond had gotten Jiraiya's interest too much for the Sage to leave it alone.

Nodding, Minato headed over and got Kushina to leave with him before she could respond to Naruto's words.

"This is the second version. I hope you're ready." Naruto said with a grin. In an instant, he was replaced with the version of him that he called 'Naruko.' Instead of the nude version, he used the version that he had created during his training with Jiraiya. Thus, he, or she, was wearing a bikini-like devil costume. It was composed of knee-high high heels, a bikini bottom with a devil tail attached to it, long gloves that went to the elbows, a very skimpy top that barely covered her assets, and a devil horn hair band.

The effect was instantaneous.

Jiraiya was thrown back by a nose bleed.

"Please release your technique." Hiruzen said with his eyes shut and a little blood dripping from his nose. The instant that he saw Naruto's new form as the smoke was clearing, he had made sure to shut his eyes.

"Sure thing." Naruko said before reverting back to Naruto in his regular clothes. "It's done."

Opening his eyes, Hiruzen said, "That was a very tricky technique. I may have to list it as a kinjutsu."

"I have one of those already. It's called the Super Harem Jutsu. I combine my Sexy Jutsu with the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu." Naruto said with a grin.

"You are forbidden to use it in front of Jiraiya. That may very well kill him." Hiruzen said matter-of-factly. "Now, I'd like to congratulate you on doing so well in your test. We need to go to my office now to find you an apartment, Chunin Uzumaki."

'Chunin… did he just say chunin?' Naruto thought in surprise. 'I'm finally going to be a chunin! Sweet!'

"What about him?" Naruto asked as he pointed at Jiraiya.

"Leave him. Maybe I won't get complaints from the owner of the hot springs today." Hiruzen said nonchalantly.

"Ah, that sounds like him." Naruto said as he began to follow Hiruzen.

'You're slipping up, Naruto Uzumaki.' Hiruzen thought. 'What is your relationship to Jiraiya? I wonder...'

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews. I think I've answered them all. If I haven't, then I might have just overlooked them.

Anyways, I hope you like the chapter. The fight between Naruto and Minato did not go as I had intended, but it met with the same result, more or less. And I want to make one thing clear. Minato is still two years away from creating the Rasengan, unless Naruto speeds the process along.

Thanks again for reading and reviewing.

Oh, one last thing... the Sexy Jutsu that Naruto used on Jiraiya can be found under the title "New Sexy Technique" on Narutopedia.


	4. Beginnings of a Friendship

**4. Beginning of a Friendship**

A resounding knock at the door of the quaint little apartment that Naruto had been given broke him out of his thoughts of the nearly empty bowl of cereal on the table in front of him.

Getting up, Naruto walked to the door and opened it. He was surprised to see Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, his future parents, standing outside of his apartment.

"Hello Namikaze, Uzumaki. How are you?" Naruto said. He was trying to be a bit formal since he did not want to offend them on accident.

"You don't have to be so formal." Kushina said. "Plus, you're apparently an Uzumaki too… which reminds me…."

"You want to know about the fact that we're related to the same clan." Naruto guessed. By the look on her face, he could see that he was right. "I'm an orphan. I recently received messages from my parents that they made when I was born though. Apparently my mother was a member of the Uzumaki clan. And I heard that your clan's good at fuinjutsu, but I'm not that good at it."

"Oh…." Kushina said. She could not help but feel a bit deflated. She was hoping that he was another member of the Uzumaki, especially since he was older than she was.

"I'm sorry I can't be of any further help." Naruto said as he reached for the door to shut it. He did not think Kushina had any other reason to talk to him.

Placing a hand against the door, Minato said, "Lord Hokage asked us to give you a tour of the village. He figured that it wouldn't due for you to not know your way around, after all."

"Oh, okay. Lead on." Naruto said as he slipped his sandals on walked through the door.

"Okay… let's start off at Hokage Monument…." Minato said.

* * *

Several hours later, Minato and Naruto were sitting in the Ichiraku Ramen Stand by themselves, eating. Kushina had been asked to help the twenty-three year old Teuchi while Naruto and Minato watched the stand for the chef.

"Hey Minato, can I ask you a question?" Naruto asked suddenly.

Surprised, Minato faced him. "Sure. What is it?" Minato asked curiously.

"Do you know much and space-time ninjutsu?" Naruto asked. A faint smile formed on his face when Minato dropped his chop sticks.

"Yeah… I do. Why?" Minato asked nervously. He was afraid someone knew of his project other than Jiraiya. He wanted to keep it a secret for a while.

"I was wondering if it was possible to… focus on the time aspect of it rather than the space." Naruto said, trying to word his question appropriately.

"You're asking if it's possible to use space-time ninjutsu to, instead of teleporting, control time?" Minato asked carefully.

Seeing the other blond nod, he said, "Second Lord Hokage was apparently capable of it. My sensei said that he was able to completely bring time to a halt once, though it was incredibly draining on his chakra. Apparently Lord Hokage told my sensei that Second Lord Hokage _could_ have actually moved through time, but he never did."

That earned a look of surprise from Naruto, but he did not say anything, so Minato simply continued to talk.

"Apparently, moving through time destroys the timeline from the point of the use, so moving forward would kill the user and possibly everyone else in existence. Moving backwards through time… well, apparently it's possible, but it is said to completely destroy the user's timeline as well. It's all just theory though. Of the practitioners of space-time ninjutsu in the world, the only people capable of such a feat are too smart to attempt it."

Naruto nodded idly. 'What does this mean? I was sent back, but I didn't use a jutsu… I suppose it doesn't really matter.'

"I do know that Second Lord Hokage reported that time travel should never be attempted. Apparently, a single person can change the future dramatically just be breathing in the woods with no one around, provided that they are from a different time period, anyways." Minato shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

"My father was said to be skilled with space-time ninjutsu, and I just realized that I don't know much about it." Naruto said, looking into his bowl of ramen.

"Once Kushina gets back, we should go to the library. I'll show you where the books written by Lord Second Hokage are located. Maybe you'll get your answers there." Minato said as he continued to eat.

Unknown to either shinobi, their conversation was being observed through a crystal ball.

* * *

The next day, Naruto, Kushina, and Minato were standing in the Hokage's Office.

"Minato, you will lead Naruto and Kushina on a simple C-rank mission. I want you three to deliver a scroll to someone. The details are in this mission scroll." Hiruzen Sarutobi said as he handed two scrolls to Minato, who took them without hesitation.

Naruto inwardly groaned at the thought of doing a C-rank mission, especially a delivery mission. Nonetheless, he did not voice his displeasure. He knew that Sarutobi was suspicious of him already, and he did not want to make him even more suspicious.

"Oh, and I want you three to keep your eyes peeled. This might be a C-rank mission, but there may be complications. Recently, there has been fighting between the Hidden Sand Village and some shinobi from neighboring lands. It's a tense situation due to the absence of the Third Kazekage." Sarutobi said.

Naruto nodded in understanding. He considered telling the Hokage that Sasori captured the Third Kazekage and turned him into a puppet, but that was a bit… insane, despite the fact that it was true. Plus, he would either be viewed as a liar- Sasori was only twelve at that point in time- or he would be viewed with even more suspicion.

"You can count on us." Minato promised as he read over the details of the mission.

"You three are dismissed." Sarutobi said.

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I'm sure that someone will comment about this chapter being short, but that's a necessary thing, apparently. You see, I had planned for the "Introduction Arc" to last ten chapters, covering Naruto's traveling to the past, waking up in the hospital, facing Minato in a match, going on a C-rank mission, and returning to the village to train, along with a private meeting with Sarutobi and a public meeting as a chunin. My planning didn't account for length, apprently, so I have shortened this arc to make the rest of the chapters longer, but I couldn't add anything further to this chapter. The good news is that I will conclude the Introduction Arc with Chapter 6, and Mikoto will appear in pretty much every chapter starting next chapter. That also means that the first full scale battle of the fic will begin soon enough.


	5. On the Horizon

**5. On the Horizon**

"Naruto Uzumaki, we're going to have to ask you to come with us." an ANBU Black Ops Captain said as he appeared in Naruto's apartment with three subordinates behind him.

Naruto looked over his shoulder at them and nodded. "I hope we can head there in private. I don't want anyone assuming I'm a traitor to my new village."

The ANBU Captain nodded. Due to Naruto's enormous chakra reserves, he did not wish to provoke the blond.

Naruto could not help but wonder why the Hokage had ordered him to be brought before him, which was the only explanation of why ANBU would be escorting him. He knew that the C-rank mission had ended in a less than ideal way- they had been attacked by Sand ninja on their way back after all- but just because a war was on the horizon, that did not mean that Naruto was needed before the Hokage.

Shaking his head from such thoughts, Naruto stood up and faced the ANBU. "Are you cuffing me?"

"No… that wouldn't stop you if you decided to be hostile anyways. We know that you can create clones in large quantities." the Captain said. "We will just head to Lord Hokage's office."

* * *

It did not take them long to reach the Hokage's office.

Once they arrived, the Third Hokage dismissed the ANBU and turned to face Naruto.

"Tomorrow, the Village Hidden in the Leaves will enter what my advisors believe to be the Third Great Shinobi War." Hiruzen Sarutobi said as he looked at Naruto intently. "Your encounter with Sand ninja was not the only one. And you can relax a little. You are not under suspicion… not as a traitor at least."

Naruto tensed at the implications of the Hokage's last sentence.

"When you were found, I had a member of the Yamanaka clan monitor you and your chakra. He never entered your mind, but he sensed a second chakra within you. That chakra has been identified as the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, though you possess a small amount of it in comparison of what a jinchuriki would possess." Hiruzen said.

Naruto slowly nodded his head. "You want to know how I have come into possession of it. After all, the nine-tails hasn't been free for a long time. It was sealed inside the First Hokage's wife during the fight that formed the Valley of the End, after all."

Hiruzen's eyebrows shot up at that.

"And the current jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails is Kushina Uzumaki, my relative." Naruto added carefully. "You can relax as well, Lord Hokage. A dead woman told me this, and I have never told anyone else of it. I'm likely the only person alive that knows of the two jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails outside of the ones that you are already aware of."

'He knows secrets that no one should know of outside of my advisors and students. How can this be?' Hiruzen thought.

"Back to the subject at hand, I've been in possession of the Nine-Tails' chakra since the day I was born. I'm obviously not a jinchuriki though. Though I am only in possession of a small portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra, I once held more. I've never possessed as much of its chakra as an actual jinchuriki though." Naruto said. He was surprised by how smoothly his words came out. He had told the truth. His father had only sealed half of the Nine-Tails' chakra within him. Thus, he had contained half of the fox's chakra that Kushina had inside of her.

Hiruzen slowly nodded. "Let me tell you a story of two men that were similar to you. Their names were Kinkaku and Ginkaku. Like you, they were not jinchuriki, but they were in possession of some of the Nine-Tails' chakra…."

Naruto listened on in interest.

* * *

At the Third Training Ground, Minato Namikaze was breathing hard while Kushina Uzumaki was sitting off to the side drawing seals on a scroll.

In Minato's right hand, he was holding a rubber ball.

Fourteen months earlier, Minato had seen Kushina use her chakra cloak in a mission following her abduction by Cloud ninja. They had fought a rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist Village, and she ended up going four-tails in the fight. The rogue ninja had died at the hands of a tailed beast ball.

Seeing the foul tailed beast skill sparked a thought in Minato's mind. What if he could create a similar jutsu that a non-jinchuriki could use? The thought expanded until he imagine a short range jutsu- the theory behind it suggested that it could not be made long range without it dissipating- that the user could add their chakra nature into in order to upgrade it.

Minato had devised a method of learning to form such a jutsu also. To stabilize a jutsu of concentrated, pure chakra, one would need to work on rotation and power in conjunction.

For the control, Minato had come with a simple plan. The user would need to form a perfect sphere. It took all of a week for him to realize that a training method that gave a simple indication of success would be perfect, and such a method for control would be to pop a water balloon using chakra.

Minato had succeeded in the first step the very day that Naruto Uzumaki was found in the Hidden Leaf Village.

The second step, the power training, was nearly as simple. The user had to pop a rubber ball using their chakra, which was obviously required power since a rubber ball was harder and more durable than the thin skin of a balloon.

"Interesting way to train…." Naruto commented as he entered the training grounds, catching Minato and Kushina's attention. "Mind if I offer a suggestion?"

"You know what I'm doing?" Minato asked in surprise.

"I'm guessing that you're trying to pop a rubber ball with chakra. You're obviously tired from chakra usage, after all." Naruto said. "I have no idea why you're trying to pop it, but it's not really any of my business."

"Knock yourself out." Minato said as he threw the ball to Naruto, who caught it.

Closing his eyes, Naruto focused his chakra with his right hand and began to manipulate the chakra with his left hand, exactly the same way that he passed the first two steps in his own time.

Minato's eyes widened considerably as the rubber ball seemed to explode.

"How… how did you do that?" Minato asked.

"I suck at chakra control, so I divided the task into two parts. With my right hand, I gathered the chakra and forced it into the ball. With my left hand, I controlled the chakra. It takes a bit more chakra to do it since you're actually expelling chakra from both hands, but it's easier that way." Naruto said.

Minato looked at the older boy appraisingly as he took out another ball.

"I'll see you guys later. I'm going to find another training field. This is the only one that I've been to before, so I thought to check here first. See ya." Naruto said as he waved and walked away.

Naruto would later laugh at the realization that he had unintentionally sped the creation of the Rasengan up by explaining to Minato how he popped the ball.

* * *

Arriving at the next training ground, Naruto removed three scrolls from his hip pouch that the Hokage had given him.

Unrolling the first scroll, he began to read.

_Wind Style: Gale Palm_

_A simple technique is activated by the user clapping his or her hands together. By focusing chakra on the air surrounding the user and willing it forward, wind is compressed and transformed into a powerful gale. The jutsu used as an isolated attack has the power to easily knock over a human, though the true value comes from using it together with projectile weapons like shuriken or kunai. Their speed, power, and ability to wound or even kill are all increased several times._

Closing his eyes, Naruto rolled the scroll back up and moved on to the second scroll.

Unrolling it, he began to read.

_Wind Style: Great Breakthrough_

_This is a relatively simple technique that creates a sudden gust of wind, but its scale varies greatly depending on the user. If used by a superior shinobi, it has enough destructive power to knock down a large tree. The wind from the squall can blow away all things in the user's line of sight._

_The hand signs required to use it are tiger, ox, dog, rabbit, and snake. It is used by forcing chakra up from the abdomen and exhaling it in a deep breath._

'That's the jutsu Orochimaru used on us in the Forest of Death.' Naruto thought as he scratched the back of his head.

Shaking his head away from such thoughts, Naruto looked at the final scroll.

Unrolling it, he began to read. He soon saw that it was not quite like the previous scrolls.

_Naruto, _

_This jutsu is not like the other two. It is a jutsu that one of my associates created. It is not an offensive jutsu in the slightest. In fact, it is not even a defensive jutsu, really. This is why I do not hesitate to share a jutsu with someone that I know so little about._

_The nature of this technique is that of a supplementary jutsu. It was designed for mid-air movement so that the user can evade attacks._

_The name of this jutsu is simply the __Wind Stream Technique__. By forming the ram hand sign and exhaling a deep chakra filled breath, it is possible to push yourself back when you are in the air. The strength of the wind stream that pushes you back will depend on various things, like the speed or intensity of the exhalation. I'm sure you'll understand what I mean when you try it out._

_- Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village_

Naruto took a deep breath and rolled the scroll back up. He could see the uses of such a jutsu. While it was the least impressive of the jutsu that the Third Hokage had let him get copies of, it was also the one that he was most likely to find a use for.

Breaking away from that line of thought, Naruto went back to the first scroll and prepared to learn the Wind Style: Gale Palm.

* * *

Back at the Hokage's Office…

"You may remove your mask." Hiruzen Sarutobi said as he looked at the "ANBU" that had been watching over Naruto since he woke from his state of unconsciousness.

"Yes, Sarutobi-sensei." Orochimaru said as he removed the mask. "It will be good to get out of this retched uniform. I still do not know why you wished for me to watch over a mere chunin."

Hiruzen chuckled at that question. "He's strong, my student. He possesses even more chakra than Hashirama-sensei or Tobirama-sensei… possibly more than both combined. Trust me when I say that he could be a handful if he wished to be so."

Orochimaru nodded slightly.

"What did you find?" Hiruzen asked, changing the subject.

"He's hiding something, but he's more loyal than even some of our shinobi." Orochimaru answered. "He's an enigma though. One minute, he's dumber than a bag of bricks, while the next, he's even more intelligent than the young Namikaze that Jiraiya trained. His wind type chakra nature is most peculiar too. I find it hard to believe that an Uzumaki would possess an affinity to it while lacking an affinity to fuinjutsu. It's… an oddity, to be sure."

Hiruzen nodded in agreement. His student spoke correctly.

"You may go. Write up a detailed report and give it to me before the meeting tomorrow." Hiruzen said.

With that dismissal, Orochimaru left without saying a word.

As soon as his student was out of the room, he opened a drawer of the desk and removed a book from it. Placing it upon his desk, he looked at it curiously.

"Naruto Uzumaki… I wish I knew for sure who you were. You are nearly impossible to read. If not for me finding this on your person the day you appeared, you would have even me completely fooled." Hiruzen said as he looked at the orange book before him.

He was not sure what was most interesting about that book.

On one hand, it was written by his student Jiraiya. The way that Jiraiya wrote his letters made it clear that it was not a forgery. The picture at the back of the book only further served as proof.

On another hand, all books held copyright dates, and the copyright date on the book before him was… off. It was listed as being twenty-four years ahead of the present year.

"The only possible answers are that it's a typo, or…." Hiruzen said, trailing off at the end. He did not like where that subject went.

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I'm sure someone will comment on my avoidance of Naruto and Hiruzen's meeting. I planned on showing it all, but then I decided to hide the content of it so I could surprise you all later.

This chapter wasn't as long as it was originally going to be, but I cut certain things to get this update out as soon as I did. I ended up cutting Chapter 6 from this arc too, so there will not be a chapter about the meeting where war is declared. I did this because it adds nothing to the story outside of length, and I didn't want to write it. I likely would have procrastinated writing Chapter 6 for a week or two otherwise.

For those of you who were looking forward to Mikoto appearing this chapter, I apologise. She was cut from it, along with Fugaku, Hiashi, Hizashi, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Shibi, Yoshino, and Tsume because they were not intended to interact with Naruto or his parents in this chapter. I had planned on showing them training to prepare for the war that they saw coming. War is on the horizon, after all. On the bright side, Sakumo Hatake and Mikoto Uchiha will make appearances in Chapter 6.

Anyways, that's all from me this time.


	6. The Land of Rivers

**6. The Land of Rivers**

It had been three days since the Third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village had declared that the Hidden Leaf Village had joined in on the war that had begun between Sand and Rock as a result of an assassination attempt of their Feudal Lord.

All of the jonin in the village, outside of the jonin-sensei and the Hokage's advisors, were already on the five fronts that the Hidden Leaf would be fighting the war on: the Land of Rivers, the Land of Rain, the Land of Grass, the Land of Waterfalls, and the Land of Hot Water.

Only chunin that volunteered to fight in the war were scheduled to be deployed, though only half of the volunteers were actually deployed. It was set so that half of the volunteers would fight for six months, and then they would be given reprieve while the others fought. The same applied for the jonin too.

Over half of the village's chunin actually volunteers, nonetheless.

To lead the forces on each front, a single shinobi of great renown was chosen by the Hokage.

Sakumo Hatake, the Hidden Leaf's White Fang, was chosen to lead the forces in the Land of Rivers, which stood between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire. It was ironic that he was chosen due to his infamy in the Hidden Sand Village.

Jiraiya, one of the Sannin and the Hidden Leaf's Toad Sage, was chosen to lead the forces in the Land of Rain due to his exploits there in the previous war. With Hanzo of the Salamander beginning to have Sand shinobi and Rock shinobi entering his country from the sides, it was expected that the Hidden Rain Village would take part in the fighting soon enough.

Orochimaru, one of the Sannin and the Hidden Leaf's White Snake, was chosen to lead the forces in the Land of Grass due to his skill and talent with snakes, which were useful in the Land of Grass's terrain.

Kagami Uchiha, one of the most powerful members of the Uchiha clan still alive and a veteran of the First Great Shinobi War, was chosen to lead the forces in the Land of Waterfalls alongside his former teammate, Torifu Akimichi. It was no secret that they were looking forward to being on the frontlines. They were close friends of Danzo Shimura after all.

Danzo Shimura, the former candidate for the position of Third Hokage and the man known as the Darkness of Shinobi, was chosen to lead the forces in the Land of Hot Water, despite the fact that they were not at war with anyone on that side of the country… yet. The Hidden Cloud Village was located in the Land of Lightning, which stood on the other side of the Land of Frost. As such, they would need to cross the Land of Frost and the Land of Hot Water to reach the Land of Fire if they took part in the war.

Of all of the possible fronts to be placed on… and of all the possible comrades to be placed with… Naruto Uzumaki, Minato Namikaze, and Kushina Uzumaki found themselves entered the main camp of the Hidden Leaf Village's in the Land of Rivers.

As soon as they entered the camp, they noticed that it was composed of canvas tents. They did not have long to look at their surroundings though.

"It's nice to see you again, Minato, Kushina." a feminine voice said, catching the trio's attention. "I don't believe I know who your friend is."

Looking at the woman before him, Naruto estimated that she was about twenty years old. She had black hair that fell to the middle of her back in a pony tail, and her eyes were the color of onyx. She was a very attractive woman in his mind, with light colored skin and a slender build. He was careful not to study her too carefully though. Just at a glance, he could tell that she was well developed, and he did not wish to come off as a pervert.

"You don't need to be shy. Introduce yourself." Kushina said, nudging Naruto.

"Hello Uchiha, my name is Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto said without making a move to shake her hand or anything. The chill in his voice when he said her last name surprised everyone there. The Uchiha clan was well respected, after all.

"Do you have a problem with me?" the woman asked as she looked intently into his eyes. "You'd better hope not. My name is Mikoto Uchiha, and I am a jonin. Thus, I'm one of your commanding officers."

"I apologize for my rudeness, Jonin Uchiha." Naruto said with a slight nod of his head. He had not intended to come off as bitter towards her, but he really did not like the Uchiha clan. The last one that he met wanted to kill him and take over the world. The one before that put his hand from his chest. The one before that tried to capture him and take him to the Uchiha that wanted to kill him and take over the world. Yes, there seemed to be a pattern there….

"Don't let it happen again." Mikoto said before turning to look at Minato. "Captain Hatake asked to see you, Kushina, and your companion once you arrived. Lord Hokage sent word ahead that you would be coming in a group of three, but we heard nothing specific about this… blond Uzumaki."

"He's even stronger than me." Minato said with a smile, surprising Mikoto completely. She knew that Minato was as strong as a low level jonin already. If not for his desire to focus more on training than a promotion, then he would have held the rank of jonin already. "If you'd like, you could lead us to Captain Sakumo's tent. I'm not entirely sure where it's located at."

Mikoto nodded and began to walk towards the biggest tent in the camp with the symbol of the Hidden Leaf on it, causing Naruto to sweatdrop. He did not know why Minato claimed that he had no idea where it was located.

* * *

When they entered the tent, Naruto saw that several familiar faces were inside it.

To start off, he saw Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang. He was roughly the same age as Kakashi was when they met. Naruto could remember seeing a picture of him before.

His eyes widened considerably as he saw Inoichi Yamanka, Shikaku Nara, and Choza Akimichi standing in the tent. He did a double take when he saw Shibi Aburame, Tsume Inuzuka, Yoshino Nara, and Fugaku Uchiha as well. It was hard to believe that he was looking at younger versions of the parents of his friends.

"You guys are dismissed. You may head to your assigned camps now." Sakumo said, noticing Minato's appearance.

'So, they're going to the other camps?' Naruto thought.

"Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto Uzumaki, and Mikoto Uchiha… it's good to see you four. You will be staying in this main camp with me." Sakumo said. "Come over here so we can talk."

The three chunin and one jonine did as commanded with a little surprise written on their faces.

"You four have specific talents that will be best employed here." Sakumo said.

"What talents does he have?" Mikoto asked, glancing at Naruto.

"He has more chakra than me, you, Minato, and Kushina combined." Sakumo answered with a smile. He saw the open mouthed expression that Kushina formed at that moment.

Kushina had larger reserves of chakra that most jonin. While the Hatake clan had always possessed small reserves of chakra but great control, Sakumo was not lacking in chakra at all. The concept of someone having more chakra than both of them was alarming.

'Of course he does.' Minato thought. He was not surprised. 'He used the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu and combined it with the Flying Swallow. It would exhaust all of my chakra just to form that many shadow clones, and he didn't even look winded.

"I've also learned a few new wind jutsu this past week." Naruto said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Don't worry about me. I'm not easy to kill." He flashed a grin at that last part. He was likely the only one there to face three hostile Uchiha's, a hostile Kaguya, and multiple S-ranked shinobi. He also beat a Rinnegan user, but that was beside the point.

"Yeah right…." Mikoto muttered.

'I learned the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu in half a day.' Naruto thought.

"That's enough bickering." Sakumo said seriously. "This camp is divided into ten divisions with my tent in the very center. Division two is under Mikoto's command, and you three will be staying there. Thus, she's your direct superior. I want you all to treat each other with respect though. By the time you guys head home, I expect that many of our comrades will be dead and all of our hands will have blood on them."

"I understand, Captain Hatake." Mikoto said with a small sigh. Naruto rubbed her wrong. She just could not help how she felt.

"That's good to hear. Anyways, I want Mikoto can show you guys your tents. You'll want some rest. Our scouts had already indicated that the Hidden Sand Village is mobilizing. We will likely be attacked within the week. This camp is a major target. After all, I'm in it, and they call me the Bane of the Sand." Sakumo said. Seeing them turn to leave, he added, "Naruto, I want you to stay for a little bit."

Once they were gone, he said, "Lord Hokage informed me of Kushina's condition so that I would be prepared if she used _its_ cloak. He also informed me of your condition and your knowledge of village secrets. You are being kept near Kushina by Lord Hokage's orders. In fact, consider this an S-ranked mission. Never allow Kushina any farther out of your sight than necessary. If she uses _its_ cloak, then you are the only one who has a chance of restraining her without series injury."

Naruto closed his eyes and nodded. 'If she loses control, I'll have to use the fox's left over chakra to go into my one or two tailed state. It should be enough to restrain her… unless she goes four-tails or above. I guess there is one advantage of being different.'

"You have an Uchiha as he superior for the same reason." Naruto said matter-of-factly.

"Mikoto already knew of Kushina's status. She saw Kushina go four-tails on a mission shortly after she was captured by the Cloud ninja." Sakumo said. "But you are correct. I placed Mikoto as he superior because she possesses one of the strongest Sharingan eyes of her clan. Of all the Uchiha, I suppose only Kagami, Fugaku, and the clan head possess stronger eyes than Mikoto."

Naruto nodded carefully.

"You dislike the Uchiha." It was not a question.

"Yes."

"Why?" Sakumo asked simply.

"My best friend… he was murdered by an Uchiha." Naruto said as he looked away. The Sasuke that he knew… the Sasuke that he had been best friends with… he had been killed by the one that took his place… the one that bore the Curse Mark and put revenge above all else. The real Sasuke had sacrificed himself to save Naruto from Haku. That's the Sasuke Naruto intended on remembering.

"I'm sorry." Sakumo said. The pain in Naruto's eyes was not faked. He could see that. "If you wish, you could write a report of what happened and the Hokage could take action. He does not tolerate murder."

"The Uchiha… he was a rogue ninja. Don't worry about it. I'll try to play nice with Captain Mikoto." Naruto said.

"That's good to hear. In that case, I'll show you to your tent. You'll be rooming with Minato Namikaze for the next six months." Sakumo said as he grabbed his tanto from the table and held it in his write hand.

"Is that the legendary White Chakra Blade?" Naruto asked as he recognized it. He had always been interested in legenary swords, and the White Fang's sword was certainly one.

"Yeah, it is." Sakumo said with a grin as he sheathed the blade on his back. "Now come on."

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Next chapter, the first battle of the fic will begin where you will see Sakumo, Naruto, Minato, Kushina, and Mikoto fight all out for the first time.

Anyways, I have three bits of information I'd like to share now.  
1. I am not describing what any of the characters are wearing for a reason. They are all wearing the Leaf ninja uniforms with flak jackets, even Naruto. Certain people, like Sakumo, are wearing different clothes though. Sakumo's is just a modified standard uniform though. If you want to see it, find the picture of him from the anime or manga.

2. I disabled anonymous reviews. I'm getting tired of getting them when the reviewers have questions that I can't answer with a pm. I don't answer reviews publically if I can help it.

3. Last chapter, I said that the last poll about what fic I do in addition to this was up. I've decided to put up one more though. Only two of the poll options are the same though. The poll options are rather specific and they vary this time. There is one time travel, one banishment, one divergence. Check it out.

Please note that some of you may be upset by my decision not to do the IwaNaruto banishment fic or even for it to appear on the new poll, but I feel that I should hold off on it for now.


	7. The First Battle

**7. The First Battle**

"Minato, get up!" Naruto said as he suddenly ran over to his friend's bed and shook him awake. He quickly spun around as he saw Minato's eyes begin to awaken.

"What is it?" Minato asked. He could have sworn he saw red around Naruto's eyes when he opened his eyes.

"We're about to be attacked. I just sensed a large number of chakra signatures approaching. Go tell Kushina; I'll inform Captain Uchiha." Naruto said as he dashed out of the tent fully clothed in his uniform. Fortunately, he had not channeled too much natural energy, so Sage Mode deactivated before he reached Mikoto's tent.

As much as he knew how bad of an idea that barging in a woman's tent early in the morning was, he knew that it was necessary.

Quickly entering it, Naruto was forced to perform a substitution as a kunai was thrown at him.

"What in the hell was that for?" Naruto asked as he appeared a few feet away from where he had originally been standing.

"What in the hell are you doing in my tent, Uzumaki?" Mikoto asked, looking at him with her Sharingan activated.

"We're about to be fucking attacked, that's what the hell I'm doing in your tent. I suppose I could have gone straight to Captain Hatake, bypassing you, but I thought that you'd appreciate it if I followed procedure." Naruto said angrily.

"Are you sure?" Mikoto asked.

"I already answered that question. You even had your Sharingan activated when I did. You know I can't lie to a Sharingan." Naruto said. "But yes, I am positive. The numbers are close to two hundred, maybe a little higher."

Cursing, Mikoto pulled her flak jacket on, zipped it, and ran past Naruto out of the tent. Glancing over her shoulder, she said, "Mobilize my division and have them go outside the camp on our side. After I talk with Captain Hatake, I will join up with you guys. Until then… you're in command."

Naruto was shocked as Mikoto left. He had not expected anything like that, but he knew that he did not have time to think too much on it. "Shadow Clone Jutsu"

In an instant, seven clones appeared outside of the tent, and they began to run to the various tents in the section, informing the members of that section of the camp.

The real Naruto form the ram hand sign and appeared in front of Kushina's tent just as Minato and the redhead walked out.

"Come with me. Captain Mikoto placed me in charge while she went to speak with Captain Hatake." Naruto said.

'It's Captain Mikoto now, instead of Captain Uchiha… interesting….' Kushina thought before she broke away from her line of thought.

"What are your orders?" Minato asked.

"Follow me." Naruto said as he began to run towards his objective. As several of his clones dispelled, he knew that he was not the only one headed to the front line at that moment.

* * *

An hour later, all ten sections of the camp were standing outside of the camp, looking at the Sand forces that had come to a stop a quarter mile away from then.

"You seem to have saved us. I didn't expect them to attack today." Sakumo Hatake said as he placed a hand of Naruto's shoulder. "We would have been guaranteed to lose many lives if you had not warned us. I was not aware that you were a sensor, though."

"I'm not an actual sensor. It's a side effect of one of my techniques, so it's only active when I use it." Naruto said. "Have you noticed what I have, Captain Hatake?"

"Yeah… that's the Puppet Brigade." Sakumo said with a nod of his head. "And… they're attacking."

Sure enough, half of their puppeteers were running towards the camp. They brought out two puppets each when they had closed half of the distance, and they actually came to a stop about two hundred yards away.

"Captain Hatake, would you agree that we can't let our people fight them in close combat?" Naruto asked. He received a nod of agreement at that. "Would you mind if I fought them a bit?"

"You want to fight about a hundred puppeteers?" Sakumo asked incredulously.

"Yeah… I might break a sweat that way." Naruto said with a yawn.

"Knock yourself out kid." Sakumo said as he shook his head. He needed to see the kid in action anyway, so his objective would be achieved.

Naruto walked twenty feet forward and formed a hand sign that made Minato smile.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto yelled as a large cloud of smoke appeared before him.

When the smoke cleared, there were five hundred shadow clones standing between Naruto and the puppeteers.

"Holy shit…." Mikoto muttered under her breath as she saw the sheer number of clones. With her Sharingan activated, she could tell that they were solid clones, and they all possessed more chakra than the average chunin.

"Attack." Naruto said as he crossed his arms.

Sakumo would later describe what happened as pure chaos. He had never imagined seeing so many shadow clones fight puppets. He noted that Mikoto was watching with her Sharingan, which meant that she was likely the only one to be able to see the entire fight.

By the end of that little fight, only ten shadow clones remained, but all of the puppets were completely destroyed.

As soon as that happened, the force that had just lost their puppets began to charge forward.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked as he watched the charging Sand ninja.

"It was the same way in the last war. Destroy their puppets, and they will come after you without them. They would rather die than retreat. It's quite annoying." Sakumo said as he stood next to the real Naruto.

"Yeah, it is." Naruto said as he formed the ram hand sign. "They should look for traps though."

In an instant, the puppet-less puppeteers stepped on a line of paper bombs that Naruto had hid with his clones during the fight with the puppets.

"How in the hell is he a chunin?" Mikoto asked, glancing at Minato.

"He didn't go all out against me. He could have killed me three times nonetheless though. I don't think I'd even be a challenge if he went all out." Minato answered.

"Naruto, let's take the rest of those guys out." Sakumo said as the remaining Sand ninja began to head in their direction. "Mikoto, Minato, Kushina, I have orders."

The three ninja appeared at Sakumo's side immediately.

"Mikoto, team up with Naruto. He's a wind type; you're a fire type. I want you to bake those puppets. I will leave a shadow clone here while Minato and Kushina come with me to circle around the enemy and attack them from behind while Naruto and Mikoto take out their puppets." Sakumo said.

Nodding, Naruto and Mikoto dashed forward and began to form hand signs.

"You got the flame?" Naruto asked cheekily.

Mikoto rolled her eyes at that. "I should've known you were a wind type. You're full of hot air."

"Believe it!" Naruto said as he formed the last hand sign.

'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough'

'Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu'

The puppeteers had to shield their eyes as a massive blast of wind filled the air between their puppets and their enemies.

Using the fire as a cover, Naruto quickly threw a barrage of shuriken and clapped his hands together. "Wind Style: Gale Palm"

In an instant, the shuriken were propelled through the flames.

'Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu' Mikoto thought as she formed the last hand sign of the jutsu and expelled a barrage of small fire balls that added to the large blast of wind that was burning the puppets.

* * *

Meanwhile…

Sakumo, Minato, and Kushina appeared on the opposite side of the puppets. They were greatly distracted by the massive blast of fire.

'So that's what happens when two people that master those jutsu combine them….' Sakumo thought as he gripped his tanto.

"Lightning Style: Strike of the White Fang" Sakumo whispered under his breath and drew his sword in a swift downward arc. One of the puppeteers was suddenly cleaved in half by a blade of lightning.

"Lightning Style: Shattering of Earth" Minato said as he slammed his hands to the ground. In an instant, a high powered blast of lightning shot out of the ground in the center of the mass of puppets. It arced outwards, shocking everyone around it.

"Uzumaki Sealing Style: Paralysis Field" Kushina called out as she threw a kunai into the barrage. The instant that it hit the ground, a seal appeared on the ground and paralyzed more than half of the remaining puppeteers.

"Minato, use _that_ jutsu." Kushina quickly said.

"Lightning Style: Field of Death" Minato said as he concentrated most of his chakra into his hands. They surged with lightning that caused him to grind his teeth. He quickly raised them up into the air and threw them forward, pointing at the crowd of Sand ninja with his palms. In an instant, a blast of lightning shot from his hands and struck the ground. Everyone within a twenty-five feet radius died from lightning going through them.

Minato dropped to one knee, panting.

"Lightning Style: Second Strike of the White Fang" Sakumo said, seeing Minato's condition. He quickly swung his tanto in multiple strikes, slicing most of the remaining Sand ninja in halves with blades of lightning. He then used the Body Flicker Technique to close the distance between them.

Only three Sand ninja were alive when they realized that Sakumo Hatake was attacking them. None of them managed to draw a weapon before he took their lives though.

"Let's go join up with the others now." Sakumo said as he walked over and helped Minato to his feet.

* * *

"Have you heard the news? They're already calling you 'the Replicator.'" Kushina said with a small smile later that night as they sat at a table, eating dinner.

"I suppose I would become a little well known as a result of my use of that jutsu." Naruto said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"They're also calling you a chakra monster… you know, like a tailed beast." Minato commented. "You might as well have the chakra of one."

The irony of that statement was not missed by Naruto.

"You did well, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto looked over his shoulder in surprise. Mikoto Uchiha was standing there.

"I'd like to apologize for the antagonism that I showed yesterday and today." Mikoto said. "I also have news. Though you are only a chunin, you will maintain second-in-command of Section Two. Now, have fun tonight. Captain Hatake believes that we will be attacked again within the week."

That announcement seemed to sober Minato and Kushina up rather quickly.

"Thank you, Captain Mikoto." Naruto said without a trace of malice or dislike in his words. "I apologize as well."

Nodding, Mikoto walked away, leaving Naruto, Minato, and Kushina to their meal.

Mikoto had many things on her mind at that moment.

For starters, she had never met anyone that could create five hundred clones, and Naruto had done it without breaking a sweat.

Second, Naruto had displayed a level of taijutsu when fighting the puppets that was on par with the chunin of the village that specialized in taijutsu. It was low jonin level at the very least.

Third, Naruto had displayed speed on par with her own when they had run towards the remaining Sand ninja.

Fourth, Naruto's skill with the Wind Style: Great Breakthrough was not chunin level. He used it with the same power that a jonin did.

Fifth, Naruto had sensed the approaching Sand ninja, whereas their sensors only sensed it after Mikoto had begun telling Sakumo about her subordinate's discovery.

Sixth, Naruto appeared to be hostile one second, kind the next, and playful the moment after that. He varied far too much for Mikoto to predict.

* * *

About twenty miles away, Lady Chiyo of the Hidden Sand Village looked at the empty tent before her as she pondered the report that she had just been given. Only a single puppeteer had survived the assault on Sakumo Hatake's camp, and the news of what happened had been disturbing.

"It appears that things might be even more difficult than I expected. There will only be two more battles. Either I will crush them and finally have my revenge on the White Fang, or…." Chiyo said, trailing off as she did not like that idea in the slightest.

"I will give them the order to mobilize now." Chiyo decided. "The Hidden Leaf and this so-called Replicator will rue the day that they interfered in my plans."

She had never expected Sakumo to die in the fight, but she had thought that he would suffer casualties. Battles were not supposed to end with casualties on only one side, after all.

"Let's see how they will deal with a more… diverse… enemy." Chiyo said as she rose to her feet and left the tent.

* * *

Author's Note: What will happen next? Who will attack the village? Will Chiyo have her revenge? All that and more will be answered in the next few chapters.

Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter. The fight wasn't too much fun to write, but I dislike writing puppeteers fighting, so that's not a surprise.


	8. The Second Assault

**8. The Second Assault**

Naruto Uzumaki stepped into the tent of the White Fang, causing everyone in there to look at him.

The ten jonin that led the divisions in the camp immediately turned to look at the person that interrupted their meeting.

"Naruto, we're in the middle of a meeting." Mikoto said with a sigh. She then noticed the look on his face and she shook her head. "We're about to be attacked then?"

That got everyone's attention.

"I've been maintaining a perimeter around the village using shadow clones. Only Captain Hatake, Captain Uchiha, and the sensors were told of this." Naruto said, seeing everyone's confused looks. "One of my shadow clones just dispelled five minutes ago. It looks like we have about three hundred enemy ninja headed this way, and only one hundred of them are puppeteers."

"Explain the situation in-depth." Sakumo said as he sheathed his tanto on his back.

"There are presently three hundred Sand shinobi nearing the base. They should be seven miles away about now." Naruto said, earning looks of surprise from those present. "It seems that there are one hundred members of the Puppet Brigade, one hundred sword wielding Sand ninja, and one hundred iron fan-using Sand ninja. That's an approximate count, at least."

'So… Chiyo is behind this, eh? Only she would use that strategy.' Sakumo thought.

"Very well then… we need to prepare for battle." Sakumo said as he took a deep breath. "Order everyone to the front line. I want all jonin to the front and all chunin to the back… with the exception of Naruto Uzumaki, Minato Namikaze, and Kushina Uzumaki. They will be at the very front, along with me and Mikoto."

"Captain Hatake, are you sure that's a good idea? They're just chunin." a random jonin asked.

"They are." Sakumo said, nodding in agreement. "All three of them could be promoted to special jonin though. In fact, Kushina has turned down a promotion to special jonin based on her sealing abilities. I'm not sure of her reasons for doing so, but they aren't important. In addition to that, Minato is nearly as skilled with fuinjutsu as Kushina, and he's very skilled with lightning ninjutsu, among other things. Finally, you have Naruto. If I have to explain why I want him on the front lines, then I'm going to need to name someone else as captain of a divison."

"We will be outnumbered, especially with the enemy's puppets." Mikoto said as she looked at Naruto. "I believe that the so-called Replicator will be useful. Plus, he's not too shabby with wind jutsu."

Mikoto broke away from her musing and said, "Naruto, I want you to _prepare_ the battle field. I will ready our division."

Naruto nodded and flickered out of the tent with a swirl of wind.

"What did you mean by that, Mikoto?" Sakumo asked curiously.

"Naruto is skilled with traps. He said that he used to pull pranks, and that they are basically the same." Mikoto answered vaguely. "I'll go and get my men ready, Captain Hatake."

* * *

When Sakumo arrived at the battle field, he was surprised to see Naruto standing with his arms cross impassively.

"You're done preparing already?" Sakumo asked.

"Yeah… I didn't set too many traps." Naruto answered with a nod of his head.

"How many did you set?" Sakumo asked.

"I only set three. People like to attack in waves, so I figure they'll attack in three waves. They'll probably send their kenjutsu users in first and try to thin our numbers. Then, they'll switch to their puppeteers since they're mid-range specialists. And after we're exhausted from kicking their asses, they'll come at us with wind specialists. They can attack from a distance and cast aside all of our projectiles easily." Naruto said thoughtfully.

"What would you suggest to your captain?" Sakumo asked. He was surprised by his subordinate's intelligence.

"I'd suggest that we kick their asses." Naruto said, causing Sakumo to face palm. "But seriously… we should take the kenjutsu users down with ninjutsu and genjutsu if we can before they actually reach us. If we can't, then we'll have to defeat them using taijutsu and kenjutsu. Then, we have the puppet users, of course. That won't even be a fight thanks to my second trap. We'll just need to take down the puppeteers after they charge us. Finally, we'll have the wind users. If we have a contingent of Uchiha, then we'd be able to take them easily, but they'll likely use their wind jutsu in collaboration. Even a combination attack with my captain won't be able to get through. I have a one-shot trap based technique that will take out about half of their wind users, but it won't work unless we can get them to approach a little closer."

Sakumo nodded in agreement. He then glanced over his shoulder and saw the rest of his men arrive. He turned around and said, "Listen up everyone. It's time to discuss our strategy."

Stepping to Sakumo's side and turning to face their troops, Mikoto said, "We've analyzed the enemy's leadership and the composition of their forces. They _will_ attack in three waves. It's a strategy that their apparent strategist excelled in during the last of the Great Wars. Unless she is trying to completely catch us off guard, she will send kenjutsu users- swordsmen- to attack us first. Once the signal is given- you will recognize the signal when it happens; trust me- you are to fire off ninjutsu at the enemy. When Captain Hatake removes his tanto, you are to cease fire, and the remainder of the swordsmen will be taken care of personally by our primary front line fighters: Captain Hatake, me, Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, and Naruto Uzumaki. The rest of you will stay in position."

"That's correct. Don't worry about us. I have selected these four to fight with me because they are most suited to taking out the kenjutsu users alongside me." Sakumo said.

"Sometime during the fighting, when we are engaging the remaining kenjutsu users, the puppeteers will strike. When they do, they will try to catch us unaware. They won't, so don't bother screaming warnings. The _signal_ will alert us, and we will take out all of the puppets. We will then regroup here and taking out the charging puppeteers using ninjutsu." Mikoto said.

'Why did she stress the word 'signal'?" Sakumo wondered.

"After that, we will deal with fan users. They will likely be capable of using wind justu unaided as well. Do not use projectiles against them. If you do, they will help the enemy." Mikoto said.

"That's an excellent strategy. Now, we wait." Sakumo said as he steadied his breathing and looked at the empty battlefield before them.

The calm before the storm only lasted for five minutes before the enemy shinobi arrived and began to charge. As predicted, only the kenjutsu users charged, while the puppeteers and wind users remained.

"What's the signal?" Kushina asked, glancing at Naruto.

"That…" Naruto began.

A popping sound caught everyone's attention as ten spheres suddenly flew into the air as the kenjutsu users passed the area where they had been located. With a ram hand sign, Naruto activated them.

The kenjutsu users were caught off guard as they heard a hissing sound. Glancing around, they saw floating, spiked spheres. They hissed like a snake… or a paper bomb.

Curses could be heard for a few seconds before several explosions were heard. As the explosions sounded, everyone was treated to a surprise. The spheres had exploded, sending kunai in every direction.

"…is the signal." Naruto finished. By everyone's surprise, he guessed that kunai grenades had yet to be invented.

'It was a good thing I kept some in a scroll.' Naruto thought. They were one of his favorite ninja tools, but he rarely used them due to how impractical they were.

All of the Leaf ninja present quickly realized that the signal had just been given off and began to fire off jutsu. With the way that they had everyone spread out in a single line, it was easy for them to attack without hitting comrades.

Sakumo watched as fireballs, gusts of wind, jets of water, spikes of earth, and blasts of lightning shot forward at their enemy. His hand went to his tanto while they used their ninjutsu against the kenjutsu users.

'Well, it looks like they're down to ten.' Sakumo thought as the kenjutsu users arrived twenty-five yards away. He drew his tanto at that, causing everyone to stop immediately.

"Let's go." Sakumo said as his right hand surged with electricity, igniting his blade with lightning chakra. He then dashed forward with Mikoto, Naruto, Minato, and Kushina at his sides.

As they neared the Sand ninja, Kushina slid to a stop and chains suddenly shot from her body and bound three of them.

"Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu" Minato said as he threw a single shuriken. It was replicated into fifty and they all imbeded in the bound enemies before they were even aware that they were trapped.

"Fire Style: Fire Stream Jutsu" Mikoto said as she formed the hand signs for her jutsu and exhaled a thin stream of fire towards one of the Sand ninja.

"Wind Style: Wind Stream Jutsu" Naruto said as he realized the nature of Mikoto's technique. Their techniques combined and completely incinerated one of the Sand ninja while two of his comrades were burned severely on a single side as a result of their proximity of him.

The burnt, but still alive, ninja were soon targeted with kunai thrown as projectiles that imbedded in their necks.

With the four remaining Sand ninja, Sakumo quickly cleaved through their swords and decapitated them with his lightning charged blade.

The second that Sakumo killed the last ninja, a massive explosion rocked the ground and an even larger cloud of smoke obscured the puppeteers.

"What was that?" Mikoto asked.

"I set up five hundred paper bombs earlier. I asked Kushina to make them for me with a sensor seal so that they would detonate if a specific mixture crossed over them. That mixture is the composition of puppets." Naruto quickly answered as he began to form hand signs.

"Of course…." Mikoto said as he she formed her hand signs as well.

"I'll help." Sakumo said as he formed the same hand signs as Mikoto.

'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough' Naruto thought as he began to exhale the gust of wind.

'Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu' Mikoto and Sakumo thought as they exhaled two large balls of fire.

Minato and Kushina were forced to close their eyes as the two fire jutsu and one wind jutsu combined in a single collaboration jutsu. It was both powerful and bright.

The Leaf ninja quickly formed the ram hand signs and flickered in a swirl of leaves back to their main force.

As soon as Sakumo and his subordinates were back with the rest of his forces, he said, "Prepare your ninjutsu."

It took a few minutes for the flames to clear and the unarmed puppeteers to come charging at them, but it took even less time than that to take them out using ninjutsu.

Once the puppeteers were defeated, Mikoto said, "Naruto, do you have a plan for getting them in the range of the final trap… the one that I helped you with?"

"Now!" Naruto yelled in response.

Suddenly, twenty shadow clones appeared behind the remaining Sand ninja, surprising everyone.

"I created shadow clones to guard the perimeter. I figured it would be a good idea to have them hold their positions until now." Naruto said.

In an instant, the shadow clones used the Wind Style: Great Breakthrough to throw the Sand ninja forward.

Just as they Sand ninja were approaching a certain spot, Naruto formed a ram hand sign and said, "Release"

Sakumo had seen many things in war, but the sight before him shocked him to no end.

A wall of fire appeared out of the middle of nowhere, and the fan users hit it propelled by the gusts of wind that had hit them. The wind hit the wall of fire as well, fueling it and making it even hotter.

The wall of fire only killed about half of the fan users, but the others were incapacitated from various things- mainly a combination of burns, smoke inhalation, and slamming into the ground on the other side of the wall of fire.

"How did you do that?" Sakumo asked quietly, completely mistified. He could tell that Naruto was surprised by the end result as well.

"I sealed some of Captain Mikoto's fire chakra in some paper seals. When they're activated, they work like a paper bomb, but the explosion that comes from them is actually just a ball of fire half the size of a Fireball Jutsu. I guess I used enough of them." Naruto answered just as quietly as his commanding officer.

Sakumo could not help but wonder how Mikoto was able to supply enough chakra to do that, but he shook his head at the though. She was an Uchiha with higher chakra reserves than most females possessed, and it was unlikely that she had given all of the necessary fire chakra for the seals in a single day.

"Minato, Kushina, Naruto, Mikoto go back to camp." Sakumo said as he glanced at the four shinobi. "You've earned a break. We'll take care of the prisoners and get everything cleaned up."

Nodding, Mikoto led her chunin subordinates back to the camp.

* * *

Two Days Later…

Hiruzen Sarutobi's pipe fell from his mouth as he read the report on the desk before him. He had expected big things of Sakumo's contingent of shinobi in the Land of Rivers, but the reality of the situation was shocking. Naruto had already earned a moniker, albeit a rather simple one, and he had single handedly killed more enemy shinobi so far than any other during the present war. Sakumo had estimated the total number of lives that he had taken were over two hundred but less than three hundred.

"A mental evaluation may be in order when he returns." Sarutobi said with a sigh.

Shaking his head, Sarutobi began to write a correspondence letter addressed to Sakumo.

There was only one good thing about Sakumo's message, Sarutobi thought. It seemed that no one knew of Naruto's name. Thus, he would not be listed in the Bingo Book. Not yet, anyways. Listing someone in the Bingo Book when their name was not even known was a very uncommon practice, after all.

* * *

Author's Note: As you might be able to tell, Naruto is becoming infamous already. You're likely wondering how it is possible that he is not even showing remorse for his actions though. That will be addressed over the course of the next few chapters. It really hasn't hit him yet. During his first fight, he killed enemy shinobi, but he has no idea how many he killed. If everyone's firing off ninjutsu, it would be difficult to tell who's killed who.

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing. And, as you may have guessed, I did not post a new story like I planned on doing. To be perfectly honest, I'm still undecided on what I'll do. Hopefully, the new chapter of Naruto will provide inspiration.

On one final note, next chapter will have a better fight in it than this one did. Alas, I am being forced to be a bit original next chapter too. The future Fourth Kazekage and the second jinchuriki of the One-Tail will make an appearance. I will provide a made up name for the Fourth Kazekage, along with giving him abilities that I think he would have. When his real name is revealed, I plan on editing his name, but his abilities will remain the same no matter what. Changing names is easy. Completely redoing fight scenes as a result of a character's abilities changing is another.

Note: Today was my two year anniversary on this site, and this fic just became my all time leading story in reviews, c2's, alerts, and favorites. It doesn't lead in hits yet, but it's heading that way.


	9. The Final Assault: Part 1

**9. The Final Assault**

Three months had passed since the last assault on the main Leaf camp in the Land of Rivers, though many raids were conducted on the other camps in the country.

As Chiyo walked through the forest, she smirked slightly. 'If the White Fang thinks we've given up on him, then he will be in for a surprise.' she thought.

Five hundred Sand ninja were walking ahead of her.

Chiyo knew that her attack had to succeed. Sending one-twentieth of their forces to attack a force of two hundred Leaf ninja was a bit much under normal circumstances, but the White Fang's presence warranted it. Even if it cost the lives of all of her subordinates, she knew that her mission would be counted as a success, as long as the White Fang's head was brought to the Sand Council on a platter. The head of the so-called Replicator would be a bonus.

'With them… I won't fail.' Chiyo thought as she looked at the shinobi that walked behind the force of Sand ninja with her. To her right, there were Tetsukaze and Karura. To her left, there were Ebizo and Shikaze.

Tetsukaze was a twenty year old jonin and a candidate for the position of Fourth Kazekage, provided that the Sand Council finally admitted that the Third Kazekage was dead. Tetsukaze was arguably one of the most powerful wind users in the village with a secondary affinity for earth.

Karura was an eighteen year old jonin and was a generalist with a small degree of medical ninjutsu. Her ability to use wind jutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, and fuinjutsu at the basic level of a jonin made her quite strong. Generalists were always more difficult to defeat than specialists, after all.

Ebizo was Chiyo's younger brother by a year. Like his sister, he was one of the Hidden Sand Village's strongest ninja. Whereas Chiyo embodied one half of the Hidden Sand's specialization, Ebizo embodied the other half. He was the most powerful wind user in the village period. His taijutsu and kenjutsu were also quite impressive. His genjutsu was merely average at best, though.

Shikaze was arguably the most dangerous one with Chiyo though. He was the Second Jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Raccoon Dog. The reason that he was so dangerous was not because of what he held though. Not exactly, at least. He was dangerous because he would become incredibly unstable the second he entered a fight. Outside of fights, he was not too bad though.

"You know the plans, right?" Chiyo asked her comrades.

"We are to only join the fight if it looks like it will be a failure otherwise." Ebizo replied with a firm nod.

"It's a shame we won't get to fight." Tetsukaze said with a sigh. "I was hoping to face this 'Replicator' that we keep hearing about."

"Perhaps we'll get lucky and they'll wipe out all of our forces." Karura said sarcastically. "Tetsu, you know that we don't want to have to enter the fight. If we do, then it means that they will be winning, despite facing superior numbers."

"She's right." Shikaze said, surprising his comrade. "Even if they kill two for every one that we kill, then that will leave one hundred of our men. Not even the White Fang can single handedly win against forces that great in number."

"I will be entering the fight when an opening is created. I will fight… and I will kill Sakumo Hatake, the Leaf's White Fang." Chiyo stated menacingly.

Though she had lost five hundred shinobi in their assaults on Sakumo's base so far in the war, it was paying off, in Chiyo's mind. The death of her son and his wife a little over five years earlier still haunted her. Revenge was the only thing that mattered to her at that moment. If not for the failure of every previous assault against Sakumo's camp, she doubted that the Sand Council would have even agreed to such a forceful attack.

"They'll never know what hit them." Chiyo said under her breath.

* * *

"An attack is coming." Sakumo said matter-of-factly as he sat in his tent with the ten jonin that led the divisions of his camp and three chunin: Naruto, Minato, and Kushina.

The unofficial ranking of the shinobi in the village had Mikoto as second-in-command while Naruto, Minato, and Kushina were respectively twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth. No chunin could be ranked higher than the jonin that led the other divisions, after all.

"Why do you think that, Captain?" Mikoto asked.

"We have yet to lose a single casualty, whereas the enemy has lost hundreds. They will want to even the score, and they will want to assemble enough forces to outnumber us by more than two to one. After all, they believe that we have a shinobi that can effortlessly create a few hundred shadow clones." Sakumo said.

"Don't we?" a jonin asked, earning some laughter.

"Nope… we have a shinobi that can create a thousand shadow clones." Sakumo replied, earning wide eyed looks from several of the shinobi present.

"That's a little hard to do." Naruto admitted. He knew that he could, but using it effectively was difficult unless he drew upon the foul chakra within him.

"Don't worry, we won't be asking you to create anywhere near that many." Sakumo reassured him. "Now, would it be possible to set up some more traps?"

"I have." Naruto said simply.

"You already set up traps?" Sakumo asked. Surprise was clear over his face.

"I've set up enough traps." Naruto confirmed. "When I'm not training, I work on traps. I'm prepared for anything."

Sakumo nodded in understanding. The blond was the most dedicated shinobi under his command. He knew that he would be recommending Naruto for promotion to jonin when they headed back home, though the Hokage would no doubt require Naruto to pass an evaluation first.

"Captain, a shadow clone just dispelled." Naruto said, catching everyone's attention. "You were right about the number of enemy shinobi too. It's at least two to one."

"How far are they away?" Sakumo asked.

"They're about five miles out. I cut the perimeter down to five miles from the original seven." Naruto answered. It had been easier to cut it down to five since it enable him to use the same number of shadow clones and have a tighter perimeter.

"Did you get a good look at their equipment?" Sakumo asked a moment later.

"No… I think they're using scrolls to hide them." Naruto answered.

Sakumo nodded with a sigh. He had a feeling that it was going to be a very dangerous battle. Hiding their weapons… that was a counter to strategists and tacticians that was utilized a great deal in the previous war by the Hidden Sand Village.

'It's entirely possible that Chiyo is personally leading them then.' Sakumo thought. He had to admit that it was not a pleasant thought in the least.

"Do you have enough traps?" Sakumo asked, looking to Naruto.

"Yeah…." Naruto said, trailing off as he tried to figure out what Sakumo was planning.

"We are going to need to try to lure the enemy into the range of your traps then." Sakumo said. "Are the traps keyed to your chakra?"

"Yeah, but they're also keyed to Captain Mikoto's." Naruto answered, surprising Sakumo. "We figured that it would have been bad if I was rendered unconscious before I could activate them."

"That's a good idea." Sakumo said with a nod of his head. He could see the uses of such an idea. Exchanging a look with Mikoto, he saw that she understood what he wanted her to do. The message was clear. 'Do not allow him to activate them. I want you to do it.'

Though they avoided discussing it, Sakumo and Mikoto had both come to the conclusion that Naruto was suffering from various things. He seemed to hold everything in, but it was clear that his actions in the second battle with the Sand ninja had caused him a great deal of anguish. It seemed to only be the icing on the cake though. They could tell that _something_ else was making things difficult for him, but he did not tell anyone what it was.

How were they supposed to know that the fate of the world rested on his shoulders, his actions may have prevented his friends from ever being born, or that he truly had no one? They were right about one thing though. Killing as many people as he did in the second assault had laid another burden upon him.

No one realized that Naruto did not grow up in a time of war like everyone else did, though. He grew up in a time of peace and only knew war in the vaguest sense.

"Get your subordinates in formation." Sakumo said as he looked at his men. "We might as well wait for them."

With that, everyone began leave the tent.

"Naruto, promise me that you will let me set off the traps." Mikoto said as she remained in the tent.

"No." Naruto said, surprising her.

"Why not?" Mikoto asked seriously.

"It's my job." Naruto said simply before he walked out of the tent. 'It's my job to protect those precious to me, and that includes you, Mikoto.' The last sentence never left his mind though.

Naruto would not have admitted it aloud, but he was even closer to Mikoto than he was to Minato and Kushina at that point. They had trained together, eaten together, and all around spent time together in order to build up their synchronization, which made their collaboration jutsu even stronger.

Despite that, Naruto was truly alone. He could not tell anyone about his past without modifying the truth. He could not tell anyone anything about his life prior to waking up in the Hidden Leaf Village without lying. It was a difficult life, to say the least.

* * *

Sakumo sighed as he glanced to his left. He could see that Mikoto's attempts to get Naruto to allow her to be the one to set the traps off had gone in vain. He did not blame here for that though. He could tell that the blond was as stubborn as they came, after all.

He broke away from those thoughts as the Sand shinobi emerged from the forests ahead of them. A single mile stood between the two forces of ninja.

A fifth of the Sand forces suddenly charged towards Sakumo, surprisingly the White Fang greatly. He was further surprised when four ninja jumped to the front, back, left, and right of the group and formed a series of hand signs that presented a rather unfortunate result.

A barrier of purple chakra surrounded the charging ninja, and it moved with them since its casters were moving at the same speed.

"They're learning." Minato commented.

"Don't do it." Naruto said.

Mikoto looked surprised. She had begun to form the hand signs for one of the traps since the barrier did not extend below the ground.

"They'll be expecting traps. They aren't effective if our enemies know that they are there." Naruto said. "Plus, that's only a fifth of their forces. We'll have to use all of the traps at once in order for them to be of any real effect. After that, they'll be looking for more." Naruto said as he continued to watch the approaching enemies.

"Fine… we'll do this your way." Mikoto said with a sigh. She knew that he was right.

"They're taijutsu and kenjutsu specialists." Sakumo commented as he saw the shinobi in the barrier summon trench knives, tanto, katana, chokuto, and ninjato from scrolls. Those who did not summon weapons pulled out kunai from their pouches or had bandages wrapped around their hands.

"Earth-" Sakumo began as he started forming hand signs.

"You'll unearth the traps if you use an earth jutsu." Naruto quickly said, causing Sakumo to halt his actions.

"You made a big trap, I take it?" Sakumo asked.

"Yeah, it's a pretty big one." Naruto answered. "I have a plan on how to set it off too."

"Oh?" Sakumo asked. Naruto rarely offered plans.

"Let's fight them their way." Naruto said, surprising the White Fang even further. "And then… we can set off the traps when they charge in, thinking that we're distracted."

"We could just use ninjutsu to take them out." Sakumo pointed out.

"We will." Naruto said vaguely.

Looking to Mikoto for clarification, Sakumo saw that the girl thought Naruto's ideas would be more effective.

"Let's go this then." Sakumo said.

The charging Sand ninja were surprised when none of the Leaf ninja even tried to attack their barrier, but they kept on until the ninja holding up the barrier dropped it so that they could attack.

The instant that the Sand ninja and Leaf ninja began to fight, two hundred Sand ninja charged forward to attack the Leaf ninja while they were distracted. They even summoned their puppets with their poison laced hidden blades.

"Knock them back now." Naruto suddenly said upon noticing that the reinforcements had just crossed half of the distance to them. His words surprised everyone, but all of the Leaf ninja knocked the close range Sand ninja back into the clearing before their camp quickly.

"Release" Naruto said as he quickly formed the ram hand sign.

Sakumo was shocked as the entire clearing, starting a few yards before them and ending about fifty yards from the Sand ninja that had yet to move, glowed. The ground glowed with seals, and every ninja in the range of the seals groaned in pain as cuts formed all over their bodies. Blood could be seen falling to the ground.

'His trap… was wind chakra filled seals?' Sakumo thought in puzzlement. He then realized the hidden meaning of Naruto's words earlier when Mikoto exhaled a fireball.

Normally, Sakumo would not have thought a simple jutsu like that could have been too effective in a large scale battle, but the fireball expanded in size dramatically as it hit the wind chakra filled clearing.

The fireball that raced through the clearing was roughly twice the size of the fireball that formed when Naruto and Mikoto used their collaboration jutsu.

"So that's why you refused to allow her to do it." Sakumo said, receiving a hesitant nod from Naruto.

"What are you talking about?" Mikoto asked.

"Naruto just activated over a thousand seals at the same time. It doesn't take much chakra to release a seal, but to unseal that many at one time… that would be difficult for even Jiraiya to do, and he has more chakra than anyone that I know." Sakumo said. "Now's not the time for discussion though."

As Sakumo said that, Chiyo walked into the clearing ahead of her subordinates.

"Do you know who that woman is?" Sakumo asked as he looked at the woman that swore a vendetta upon him at the end of the last war.

"Is that Lady Chiyo?" Naruto asked. She looked twenty years younger than she had been when she died, but he could recognize her nonetheless, even from that distance.

"Yes, it is." Sakumo answered. He was surprised that Naruto knew who she was at a glance, but that was not that important at that moment. "She is the only truly dangerous ninja that I have seen so far. With her here, even my presence won't guarantee victory. The only way I can prevent her from killing our forces with her poison and puppets is by leading her away from here and fighting her on my own."

"So you just have to lead her away and fight her where no one can get in the way?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, that's about it." Sakumo replied.

"We'll handle everything on this front." Naruto said.

Sakumo nodded and used the Body Flicker Technique to appear a hundred yards away from Chiyo.

"I will have my revenge, Sakumo Hatake." Chiyo stated as the White Fang appeared before her.

"You'll have to catch me first." Sakumo said as he suddenly took off running to his right.

Though she understood what he was doing, Chiyo ordered her forces to attack as planned and followed after Sakumo.

Once Sakumo and Chiyo were out of sight, the Sand ninja charged at the Leaf ninja, and their battle began.

* * *

The battle between Leaf and Sand ninja had been going on for ten minutes thus far, and Naruto would not have liked to even count the number of shinobi that both sides had already lost.

Unlike the previous attacks on their forces, the Leaf ninja had been attacked with a crowd that varied considerably. Puppeteers, kenjutsu users, taijutsu users, weapon specialists, wind users, and earth users were mixed into the force that Chiyo had ordered to attack them.

The battle had been mostly even, though the Leaf shinobi had been in possession of a few advantages. As such, the Sand shinobi had been cut down to one hundred from two hundred, while the Leaf shinobi had only lost fifty thus far.

It did not make things easy though.

It was the first fight where the Hidden Leaf Village had lost causalties against the Hidden Sand. That made it harder than normal, after all.

Naruto was about to finish the battle up when four shinobi appeared in the center of the battle field.

Upon realizing who the shinobi were, he froze. He only recognized three of them, but he was certain that they were Chiyo's younger brother and both of Gaara's parents. The last one did not need to be recognized by name though. The large, sand-colored gourd on his back made Naruto aware of who he was.

Naruto know, at that point, that he was not going to be able to end the fight quickly.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Mikoto asked, seeing Naruto's attention focused outward.

"A few very powerful shinobi just showed up. We'll have to take them on personally if we don't want our men to die against them." Naruto said as he took a deep breath.

"We're ready." Minato said as he appeared next to them with Kushina.

* * *

Author's Note: That's the end of the chapter. Yes, I know that I'm evil. Next chapter, I will show Naruto's fight with Ebizo, Minato's fight with Tetsukaze, Kushina's fight with Shikaze, and Mikoto's fight with Karura, along with the end of Sakumo's fight with Chiyo.

The chapter was not planned to end here, to be honest. I felt that the one-on-one fights should be placed in a different chapter though.


	10. The Final Assault: Part 2

Author's Note: First of all, I'd like to apologize. This chapter is sort of anti-climactic and did not come out anywhere nearly as well as planned. I just couldn't get it right.

**10. The Final Assault: Part 2**

"I'll take the one in the middle." Naruto said.

"Do you even know who he is?" Mikoto asked. "That's Ebizo, one of the most powerful shinobi of the Hidden Sand Village. There's no way that-"

"I can take him." Naruto said without a hint of doubt. "Admit it. I'm just a chunin, but I'm the second strongest shinobi in this camp."

'He's right.' Mikoto thought with a sigh. She knew that he was stronger than her. The only one of his superiors that could boast a greater level of skill was Sakumo Hatake.

Naruto closed his eyes and said, "Lord Ebizo of the Hidden Sand Village, prepare yourself."

When his eyes snapped open, the pupils were no longer circular or blue. They were slit and were crimson.

With speed that shocked everyone present, he appeared directly in front of Ebizo and slammed his fist into the older man's torso, sending him flying back.

Naruto quickly followed after the man though. He did not want to get attacked by the man's allies after all.

"I see." Mikoto said as her Sharingan spun to life. "Kushina, you'll need to fight the guy with the gourd on his back. A second chakra is active within him."

"Understood." Kushina said as she threw a paper bomb wrapped kunai at her fellow jinchuriki. It exploded in his face, causing him to immediately run after Kushina.

"I'll lead him away so we don't have complications." Kushina said as she took off running, resulting in her enemy following her.

"I'll take the guy." Minato said as he used a Body Flicker Technique to appear between Tetsukaze and Karura. He knocked both of them apart and moved on to face Tetsukaze in single combat.

Karura was about to interfere, but Mikoto's appearance in front of her stopped that.

'That's the Sharingan!' Karura thought, mentally cursing. She knew that an Uchiha was the last person that she needed to fight. The abilities of the Sharingan were widely known and feared.

The main problem for Karura was that the Sharingan made her genjutsu useless while it gave the Uchiha an edge over her in ninjutsu and taijutsu.

There was a reason that the Uchiha clan was only matched by the Senju clan in the era known as the Shinobi Clan Wars.

"My name is Mikoto Uchiha. I hope you have your affairs in order." Mikoto said as her Sharingan began to spin, trapping Karura in a genjutsu.

* * *

"Who are you?" Ebizo asked as he jumped back from his foe.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. Your people, along with some of my own, call me 'the Replicator.' Hopefully, you'll survive this and people will start to call me by my name instead of that dumbass moniker."

"You are one of the Uzumaki?" Ebizo asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I am." Naruto said with a nod.

"You must be good with fuinjutsu then." Ebizo remarked.

"I like to tell people that I suck at it, and I kind of do." Naruto said with a grin. "But, that's probably because I compare myself to my teacher. He was pretty damned good with fuinjutsu. I never met anyone who was better, actually. He told me that his skill in that area surpassed even the Third Hokage."

Ebizo's eyes widened.

"That reminds me…." Naruto said as he quickly formed the ram hand sign.

Ebizo disappeared in a flash of light.

"It's a good thing that I prepared that just in case I had to fight someone stronger than me." Naruto said as he wiped his brow. The jutsu that he used was a fuinjutsu-based space-time ninjutsu. It basically summoned the target to another seal, and Naruto had gotten a shadow clone to place a seal about thirty miles away, closer to the Land of Wind.

Naruto dropped to his knees as he panted. It took a great deal out of him to use the jutsu. It was far from complete. The only reason that he was not unconscious from chakra exhaustion at that point was because he had been using the Nine-Tails' chakra when he activated it.

Glancing at the ruined seal, he sighed. Each seal only had one use. He supposed that it had one bright side. No one could study the seals after he used them.

Closing his eyes, Naruto maintained perfect stillness and began to draw natural energy within him. After a short time, he rose to his feet in Sage Mode.

'Oh shit!' Naruto thought as became aware of the other fights.

* * *

Karura slumped to the ground as Mikoto delivered a fierce chop to the back of the neck.

She had known realized that the Sand kunoichi would dispel the genjutsu, so she had decided to defeat her before she could manage it.

Mikoto quickly crouched down to Karura's body and tied her hands behind her back with ninja wire. She then turned to see Minato fight his opponent.

With crossed lightning and wind kunai, Minato and Tetsukaze looked into each other's eyes with fierce determination.

"You have the strongest lightning affinity that I have ever seen." Tetsukaze said. "I am Tetsukaze, by the way."

Minato nodded with a grunt. "I'm Minato Namikaze, and you're not too shabby yourself."

"That's an arrogant thing to say."

"Wind beats lightning… but lightning and water together are very difficult to beat." Minato said with a grin.

"What are you talking about?" Tetsukaze asked.

Just as the future Fourth Kazekage spoke, a jet of water slammed into his back from Mikoto. Minato then proceeded to grab onto his shoulder with a lightning chakra charged hand.

The combination of water and lightning completely shocked Tetsukaze and dropped him to the ground in a state of unconsciousness.

Following Mikoto's example, Minato tied Tetsukaze's wrists together behind his back with ninja wire and turned to face his kunoichi comrade.

"That was a good strategy." Mikoto complimented. "Maybe you'll be as good as Naruto at that type of thing one day."

Minato chuckled and nodded in agreement. "I'm going to go after Kushina."

"Don't." Mikoto said, surprising him. "Naruto will do it. Captain Hatake told me that Naruto is supposed to keep an eye on Kushina. If _it_ comes out, Naruto's supposed to be able to restrain her."

'How in the hell does someone restrain a jinchuriki when they have tails out?' Minato wondered.

* * *

Kushina knew that she was fighting a losing match. She could not keep dodging the sand.

As if on cue, sand wrapped around Kushina's leg and it began to tighten.

'No! I can't let it crush me leg!' Kushina thought, panicking.

That's when it happened.

Chakra exploded from Kushina's body, and she entered her one-tailed state without intending to.

'I wish I could control this thing.' Kushina thought with a sigh as he got down on her hands and feet like an Inuzuka and prepared to fight using the fox's chakra.

"I'm going to have to transform." Shikaze said in a way that made it clear that he was excited.

Kushina watched in horror as Shikaze turned into the full One-Tailed beast.

As much as she hated to do it, Kushina closed her eyes and made a request. 'Please give me more of your power.'

Two more tails were added to Kushina's chakra cloak, and she completely lost control.

Naruto arrived on the scene as Shikaze and Kushina began fighting, the former in his transformed state and the latter in her three-tailed state.

'He's not like Gaara.' Naruto noted of Shikaze. The jinchuriki of the One-Tailed appeared to be using his human mind to fight, which was the reason that Kushina was being over powered. She lacked the ability to think for herself at that point.

He quickly removed a seal from his hip pouch and looked over it. Jiraiya had taught him how to create the same seal that Kakashi had used to suppress the Nine-Tails' influence on his first mission after his training trip with the Toad Sage.

Using all of his speed as a Sage, Naruto appeared in front of Kushina and slapped the seal on her forehead, instantly stopping her in her tracks.

He then picked Kushina up and laid her down out of the way while he turned to face Shikaze.

'Shadow Clone Jutsu' Naruto thought as one of his clones formed next to him. He could tell that no one else was around, so….

"Rasengan" Naruto said quietly as his clone formed the jutsu in his right hand. The clone proceeded to dispel, and Naruto dashed towards the transformed jinchuriki with all of his speed.

Slamming the Rasengan into the sand body, Naruto felt it try to absorb his hand, but he casually broke its hold. His strength in Sage Mode seemed to be ungodly, after all.

"Sage Wind Style: Great Breakthrough" Naruto said as he formed hand signs. He then exhaled an incredibly powerful blast of wind that threw the One-Tail back.

'If I kill him, the One-Tail will release.' Naruto thought as he tried to figure out how to deal with his foe. 'I used my only seal on Mom, so how in the hell am I going to do this?'

Suddenly, the One-Tail swung a hand at Naruto to knock him through the air, but he just caught it with his left hand as if it were nothing.

'I forgot my own strength.' Naruto thought. He got an idea at that.

Focusing chakra into his feet, Naruto cast aside the hand and threw himself through the center of the sand body as quickly as he could.

He slammed into Shikaze as he passed through the sand body, and he tackled him to the ground on the other side of it.

Not wasting any time, Naruto quickly bit his thumb and traced a rough seal on the jinchuriki's forehead and slammed his hand onto the seal.

Shikaze screamed in pain as his sand suddenly fell to the ground.

"_This is called a Chakra Disruption Seal. Using it on your enemy will forcibly disrupt all of their chakra outside of their chakra network. It will cancel any ninjutsu of theirs, which is the primary use of it. The best part about it is that it does not restore the chakra that is disrupted. It is particularly useful against hosts like yourself for obvious reasons." Jiraiya said as he drew a seal on the paper between him and his apprentice._

"_How am I ever going to use that in a fight? Fuinjutsu is so boring." Naruto said with a yawn._

'Thanks, Pervy Sage.' Naruto thought before he began to draw the Jinchuriki Suppression Seal on Shikaze's right arm using his blood.

Once it was activated, Naruto tied Shikaze up, left ankle to right wrist and right ankle to left wrist, he headed to Kushina.

He froze when he saw she was awake.

"You're a Sage…." Kushina said in a whisper.

"And you're a jinchuriki." Naruto said as he nodded in agreement. "Can we keep this between us?"

"I'd never do anything to endanger a friend and family member." Kushina said as she tried to stand up.

"I'll help." Naruto said as he picked Kushina up, earning a slight blush from her.

"Only one fight is still going on, so we'll go back to the camp. I think Captain Hatake will win." Naruto said a moment later after he sensed out the area. Immediately afterwards, he ran out of senjutsu chakra and exited Sage Mode.

"How many of our forces died?" Kushina asked softly.

With a grim look upon his face, Naruto said, "We're down to one hundred, excluding Captain Hatake."

* * *

"Those are some strong puppets." Sakumo commented as he looked at the ten puppets before him. She claimed that they were created by Monzaemon Chikamatsu, and he was inclined to believe her.

The puppets had fared better against him than the ones before it had. There were roughly twenty destroyed puppets surrounding them.

"They will be the instrument of your death." Chiyo said as she suddenly sent all ten of them to kill Sakumo.

She was shocked when he did not even try to move. That paled in comparison to the shock that she felt as a sharp pain hit her left forearm.

Chiyo looked down and saw that her left hand had just been cut off. She did not think that she would be able to stem the bleeding either.

"I'm a master of genjutsu as well, unless you forgot." Sakumo said as he placed his tanto to her throat.

"I didn't forget." Chiyo said as several puppet blades came flying at Sakumo from behind. The blades had come from some of the puppets that he had destroyed earlier.

'I see… so she will kill me at the cost of her own life.' Sakumo thought before he used the Body Flicker Technique.

Chiyo fell to the ground, impaled by her own blades.

'Her quest for revenge killed her.' Sakumo thought as he shook his head sadly. He hated to think about the fact that it was because of him that she had been driven to that end.

He slowly walked back to his camp at that point to reassess the damage that had been done. The following day, he would send Chiyo's body back to the Hidden Sand Village.

* * *

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing.


	11. Return Home

**11. Return Home**

Three months after the death of Chiyo, Sakumo Hatake and his subordinates were arriving back at the village.

Things had changed on the front with the Hidden Sand Village since Chiyo's death.

For starters, the Hidden Sand Village had ceased to attack anyone from the Hidden Leaf Village outside of the Land of Rain, which had quickly become the location of the heavy fighting of the war.

Everything seemed to truly change after Chiyo's body was returned to the village. Within the following week, a Fourth Kazekage was named by the Sand Council… Ebizo.

Though furious over his sister's death, Ebizo had placed his village above his personal feelings and had placed orders that no Sand shinobi were to enter the Land of Rivers until new orders were given. They had lost too many people on that front already.

With the Hidden Sand Village no longer actively fighting the Hidden Leaf Village, things had begun to change even more greatly. The Hidden Rock Village was likely the village most affected due to the fact that they had to deal with constant attacks from Sand and Leaf.

Sakumo shook his head as he thought of everything that had happened. Though his subordinates had captured Tetsukaze, Karura, and Shikaze in the fight three months earlier, the three shinobi had managed to get away before Sakumo could properly take them captive. The only good aspect of the last assault seemed to be the Leaf village obtaining the ten puppets of Monzaemon Chikamatsu, though they lacked puppeteers to use them.

From a strategical standpoint, Sakumo acknowledged the other good aspects of the final assault. Those particular aspects were obviously the death of Chiyo and five hundred Sand ninja. He refused to suggest that they were actually good results.

The White Fang glanced at the enigma that was Naruto Uzumaki out of the corner of his eye.

He felt that he would never be able to understand the boy. He saw the boy argue with Mikoto like a hated enemy at the start of their deployment, and by the end of it, he was very close friends with the Uchiha. In addition to that, he had shown that he was stronger than any of Sakumo's other subordinates, despite only holding the rank of chunin.

"Everyone, you are dismissed." Sakumo said as they walked through the gates. Before anyone could go their separate ways, he added, "Naruto, wait. You need to come with me to see Lord Hokage."

"Is something wrong, Captain?" Naruto asked, alarmed by Sakumo's words. Meeting with the Hokage had been nice in his own time, but it most certainly was not a good thing now that he was in the past. Normal people did not meet with the Hokage. It was one thing for the leader of a mission to do so, but Naruto was a mere chunin.

"You faced the Kazekage in battle and defeated the jinchuriki of the One-Tails. Do you really have to ask?" Mikoto said as she rolled her eyes. "I'll catch up with you later. I won't let you slack off on your training while we're back."

"Yes, he needs that. After all, he never works hard." Kushina said with a little sarcasm in her words. She mock glared at Minato when he chuckled.

"Now, now, let's go." Sakumo said as he placed a hand on the blond's shoulder.

* * *

Three hours later, only Hiruzen Sarutobi and Naruto Uzumaki were sitting in the former's office. Sakumo had just finished his debriefing and had left.

"Naruto, you seem to be making waves in the ninja world already. I've heard stories of how you fought the new Kazekage, and though you failed to defeat him or even fight at his level, you did completely remove him from the battle. You then proceeded to intervene in a battle between two jinchuriki and subdue both of them without suffering any injuries." Sarutobi said as he looked at the blond carefully.

"I'm surprised you know about my fight with Ebizo." Naruto said as he looked at the Hokage. "I did lead him away from the battlefield after all."

"I have ways of observing my shinobi from a distance." Sarutobi said cryptically, though Naruto understood how. "I saw you transport Ebizo away from the area, but my attention was diverted to Kushina's fight with the One-Tail jinchuriki and Sakumo's fight with Chiyo. I seem to have completely missed your fight with the One-Tail jinchuriki though."

Naruto nodded slowly. "What do you want to know, Lord Hokage?"

"To start off, I would like to know how you teleported Ebizo away from the fight. I'd also like to know how you managed to intervene in a fight between two jinchuriki, suppress the influence of their tailed beasts, and come out of it all without a scratch." Sarutobi stated.

"The jutsu that I used to teleport Ebizo is based off of the Reverse Summoning Jutsu. I used to be able to summon shadow clones using a scroll, so I decided to attempt to replicate it using seal arrays. It was not a total failure, but it was not a total success either." Naruto explained. "As for my defeat of the two jinchuriki… I used one of these on Kushina and made one from scratch in the middle of the fight to use on the One-Tail." As he said the last part, Naruto placed a Tailed Beast Chakra Suppression Seal on the Hokage's desk.

'That seal array… it is familiar.' Sarutobi thought upon seeing it. The way that it was made had all the signs of one of his students.

"How effective are these seal tags?" Sarutobi asked.

"At my level, I doubt that I could make them strong enough to suppress any more than three tails." Naruto confessed.

Sarutobi took the seal and looked it over carefully. "I will have to take this seal so I can study it carefully."

"I understand, Lord Hokage." Naruto said. He did not feel like admitting that he had nine more of them in his hip pouch at that moment.

"That's good to hear. Now, we need to discuss your rank." Sarutobi said, his voice becoming even more serious- if that was even possible.

"What do you mean, Lord Hokage?" Naruto asked, though he had suspicions of what it was about.

"Sakumo reported that you, Mikoto Uchiha and Minato Namikaze were the most powerful shinobi in his camp other than him. Despite being a chunin, you are stronger than every jonin subordinate of Sakumo's. How did you fail to outright defeat Minato in your test all those months ago?" Sarutobi asked seriously.

"For starters, the test match was the day after I woke up from a month long coma. I was not at one hundred percent yet." Naruto said as he met the Hokage's eyes. "Also, I'm not willing to use my full powers against a comrade. Furthermore, I did not really have any offensive jutsu prior to you giving me those scrolls after I became a chunin."

Sarutobi sighed as he nodded in understanding. "I seem to have overlooked the fact that you were weakened at that time."

"I'm glad you did. Things were easier as a chunin. People underestimated me." Naruto admitted.

"That's good." Sarutobi said. "You don't need to be a chunin any further, though. In five months, you may take part in the Jonin Evaluation Exams."

"Why do we have such a long wait until then?" Naruto asked curiously. It did not make much sense to him.

"Not everyone is ready for it, not yet anyways. Some of the chunin in our ranks are close to being strong enough to be considered jonin, but they still need a push. The five months between your return and the evaluation is intended for training."

"Of course it is." Naruto said with a small laugh. Training was the life bread of a ninja. They usually trained more than they did missions, after all. Usually being the exception of war and fan girls that never voluntarily train.

"I managed to get you some new wind jutsu scrolls." Sarutobi said as he withdrew seven jutsu scrolls from his desk. "They will come at a price though."

A sense of dread filled Naruto. "What is this… price… Lord Hokage?"

"I want answers. If you agree to answer all of my questions, then I will give you these scrolls. And to make it even fairer to you, you don't have to answer my questions until you become a jonin, though putting it off would be a bad idea for you. I hear that your Captain dislikes slacking off." Sarutobi said as he interlocked his fingers and placed his arms, elbows down, onto the desk.

Naruto was unsure whether to cringe more at answering the Hokage's questions or Mikoto giving him a beat down of his life.

Sighing, Naruto said, I… I agree, Lord Hokage. I will answer all of your questions. I'd like to add one more stipulation to our agreement though."

"Oh?" Sarutobi asked, surprised.

"Seven scrolls for answers to any questions you could possibly ask… that's not exactly a fair deal. I want information as well. To be more precise, I want information on Madara Uchiha." Naruto said.

The Third Hokage's eyes widened at Naruto's statement. He agreed that the deal was a bit unfair, even with the addition request. That did not make things simple though. To hear that Naruto wanted information on one of the co-founders made Sarutobi a bit uneasy.

"I need to know why." Sarutobi stated.

"You'll know the answer to that after I become a jonin." Naruto said as he met his leader's eyes. "I won't leave the village until I am re-deployed, and you could always kill me if you don't like my answers."

"You have nerve, Uzumaki. I like that about you. It seems that you don't feel fear. You know who I am… why I am renowned… and yet, you speak to me like I am any other man." Sarutobi said with a small smile.

"You are any other man. The only difference is that you could kill me three hundred ninety-four and half ways by the time I make it from the door to your desk." Naruto said with a shrug.

"A half?" Sarutobi asked curiously.

"In the blink of an eye, you could no doubt half-kill me." Naruto said with a nod. "So do we have a deal, Lord Hokage?"

"We do. I will give you the information that we have over Madara Uchiha… but I will not hand over it just yet. In three months I'll give the information to you. It will be a bit difficult to compile and copy. He was the greatest rogue ninja of our village, so Hashirama-sensei and Tobirama-sensei were careful about the storage of the information." Sarutobi said with a nod.

"Thank you. You won't regret it." Naruto said as he grabbed the seven scrolls from the desk.

"I hope not. Now, there is still one order of business to discuss." Sarutobi said, catching Naruto off guard. "I received a message from the head of the Uchiha clan earlier today. He is… worried… about your relationship with Mikoto Uchiha."

That certainly threw Naruto off.

"Mikoto Uchiha was set to marry Fugaku Uchiha due to various factors. It was suggested by her clan elders that she go through with it, though she did have a small level of freedom to choose. A few days ago, Mikoto sent a message canceling the engagement." Sarutobi said.

'Oh shit….' Naruto thought as he realized exactly who Mikoto was. If he was the reason that the engagement was broken off, then that made Mikoto Sasuke's mother.

"The clan head seems to think there is a romantic relationship between you and Mikoto." Sarutobi said. "Is there?"

"No, we are not involved… not yet, at least." Naruto said, surprising the Hokage. "I like her, and I think she likes me, but we were in the field and she was my Captain. It would have been inappropriate to tell her how I felt."

'Not that I have much experience in the type of thing. Sakura rejected me every time, and eventually gave a false confession to manipulate me. And Hinata liked me, I think, but I never had any interest in her that way.' Naruto thought.

"That's good of you. Just keep in mind that Fugaku will not take her being with a non-Uchiha well." Sarutobi said. "Now, I believe that I have meddled in your personal life enough. You may take your leave. I look forward to seeing how you do in the evaluation in five months."

"Thank you." Naruto said before he rose to his feet and left.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm sure none of you expected this chapter up so soon since I said that I'd take a break from it and work on another fic for a little while. I decided to do one last chapter before I do that. The main reason is that I am still having trouble deciding on what I am going to write. Also, as a reminder, check my profile on a regular basis. I normally have one new poll up every day.


	12. The Training Begins

**12. The Training Begins**

A single month had passed since Naruto had met with the Third Hokage and received the jutsu scrolls. And as a testament to his dedication, Naruto had mastered each of the seven jutsu already.

Naruto grinned at the thought of having seven new wind jutsu to add to his arsenal. That brought his total up to ten wind jutsu, which would be quite useful.

The first scroll had contained the jutsu known as 'Wind Style: Gale Force.' In essence, it had been a more advanced force of the Wind Style: Great Breakthrough. Though it was only a C-rank ninjutsu, unlike the others that he had been given that time around, it was a powerful jutsu.

The second scroll had contained a jutsu that the Uchiha clan had copied from the Hidden Sand Village back in the First Great Shinobi War. Naruto was unsure how the Hokage had obtained one of the Uchiha clan's scrolls, but it even had the Uchiha clan's crest upon it. That jutsu was simply called 'Wind Sword.' It created a blade of wind that was nearly impossible to defend against, and it did not even take any hand signs.

The third scroll had contained a jutsu that was created by a shinobi of the Leaf Village. Apparently, the jutsu had been left to the village when the shinobi died since he had no living relatives. It was called 'Wind Style: Wind Blade.' Unlike most wind jutsu, it did not require blowing of any kind. The user simply used the air before him to create a blade of wind that was capable of slicing through almost anything.

The fourth scroll had contained a jutsu known as 'Wind Style: Vacuum Wave.' It was created by an associate of the Hokage, and it allowed the user to exhale a single blade of wind that could slice through multiple enemies. By spinning around, the jutsu could be used more effectively.

The fifth scroll had contained a jutsu known as 'Wind Style: Serial Vacuum Waves.' As expected, it was created by the same person that the fourth jutsu was created by. It was a modified version of the fourth jutsu. It allowed the user to launch multiple blades of wind instead of a single one.

The sixth scroll had contained a jutsu known as 'Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere.' When Naruto began to learn it, he finally discovered that it was Danzo Shimura who created the jutsu that the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh scrolls contained. It allowed the user to exhale multiple bullets of wind chakra over a wide range, making them difficult to dodge.

And the last scroll had contained the more advanced 'Wind Style: Great Vacuum Sphere.' It allowed the user to exhale a large bullet of wind chakra that possessed cutting and crushing power.

After Naruto had mastered those seven jutsu, he had considered moving on to something else, like another element. He had opted against that though. His skills with ninjutsu had grown to a level that far exceeded his own abilities. Thus, he had approached Mikoto and asked her for training of another sort.

His physical capabilities were not on par with a jonin, despite the fact that his stamina allowed him to act as though they were. Mikoto had insisted that genjutsu training be added to the regiment as well. Though he knew that he could never learn genjutsu, Naruto did not complain. Genjutsu was still his biggest weakness, after all.

That was what led to him arriving at the training ground where Mikoto was waiting patiently.

As soon as he stepped foot on the training ground, she activated her Sharingan and charged towards him.

Naruto quickly readied himself for the seemingly daily ritual of taijutsu practice. Sure, they had only been doing that for a week, but he had no doubts that it would continue until he became a jonin.

The thought of becoming a jonin left Naruto with mixed feelings. He had only ever been a genin in his own time, despite defeating two members of Akatsuki and being very close to the Third and Fifth Hokage. In a world where he was distrusted by the Hokage, he was already a chunin. It seemed that the world was quite fucked up, if he did say so himself. And he did… often.

Naruto had to admit that it was fun sparring against an Uchiha, despite his initial dislike of the clan. When it came right down to it, the Sharingan made it more of a challenge. He had unsurpassed stamina, and his opponent could predict his every move. He had slowly been working on a method to deal with Sharingan users, much like Might Guy had created in his own time. He was not yet at the point where he could predict a person's movement by their feet though.

Breaking away from those thoughts, Naruto did a back flip, effectively dodging a sweeping kick that had been aimed at his shins.

"You're going to have to do better than that to beat a jonin." Mikoto said from behind Naruto.

'Oh right… that's why I hate the Sharingan. She can cast genjutsu without me even noticing.' Naruto thought as he used the Body Flicker Technique to get away from Mikoto and the illusional copy. Once he was away from them, he broke the genjutsu.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu" Naruto said with a grin. In an instant, two hundred shadow clones appeared.

"Now who's cheating?" Mikoto muttered under her breath as she formed the tiger hand sign. If he wanted to use ninjutsu, she would give him some ninjutsu.

* * *

About four hours later, Naruto and Mikoto were sitting off to the side on a break, eating some bentos that the latter made that morning.

"So, it's true. You really have been getting close to the blond Uzumaki."

Mikoto and Naruto glanced up at those words and saw Fugaku Uchiha approaching them. His eyes were onyx black, indicating that his Sharingan was not active at that moment.

"I could have understood if you broke off the engagement simply because you were not interested. I could have understood if it was done because there was another Uchiha that you were interested in. But doing it because of an Uzumaki… have you no shame? You know the Uzumaki is an offshoot of the Senju. You're a disgrace to your clan." Fugaku said, biting back bile as he looked at Naruto.

Mikoto looked surprised by Fugaku's words, but she steeled herself at the last part. "If that makes me a traitor, then I'm glad to be one. Avoiding or hating someone because of who he is related to… you are blind, Fugaku. And even though it is none of your damned business, I am simply friends with Naruto. There's nothing else going on."

"I'm sure he enjoys the _benefits_ of your friendship." Fugaku said, sneering at her.

Mikoto activated her Sharingan immediately at those words, but she was unable to stand up before Fugaku was sent flying backwards.

Naruto had used speed that Mikoto had only seen him use once before, against Ebizo. He had appeared in front of Fugaku and slammed his fist into the older male's jaw.

Fugaku slammed into the ground and placed a hand to his broken jaw in shock.

"If you _ever_ say anything like that about Mikoto again, I will _destroy_ you." Naruto said, his eyes still crimson, though they had lost their slit-like shape.

"You've made a mistake today." Fugaku said, though it came out barely intelligible due to his broken jaw.

"That's nice to know." Naruto said. He caught the meaning of the words well enough, even if they were hard to understand. "I'd recommend that you get of here now. I am quite capable of forcing the issue, if you'd prefer." As he spoke those last words, he formed the tiger hand sign. All he had to do was inhale, form the dog hand sign, and exhale, and Fugaku would be destroyed.

Fugaku considered activating his Sharingan and trapping Naruto in a genjutsu, but he saw that Mikoto's Sharingan was already activated. If he even made to move, she would see it and intervene. Thus, he rose to his feet and left, furious at the way things had ended up.

"I'm sure that won't end badly." Mikoto muttered. "Naruto, you are aware that you just assaulted a jonin, right?"

"I'm sure he's eager to tell the Hokage that a chunin broke his jaw with a single punch." Naruto said with a shrug. "Worst case scenario, I'll just remind Lord Hokage that there are certain dangers when a shinobi steps foot on an occupied training ground."

That actually caused Mikoto to start laughing. She had to admit one thing. He did have a point. She supposed that it was just impressive that Naruto had not used one of his A-rank wind jutsu on Fugaku right from the start.

A question began to form in the back of Mikoto's mind at that moment though. 'Why did he defend me like that?' It simply did not make sense to her. Most people did not react that passionately just because a friend was insulted, especially when the one that threw the insult at the friend was a very experienced Sharingan user. As it was, Fugaku was five years older than Mikoto.

A possible reason began to occur to her, but she would have to think more clearly on it before making a decision.

"Are you ready to resume training?" she asked. She knew that it was often easier to think when she was doing something.

"I'm game." Naruto said with a nod and a grin.

* * *

"Let's call it a day." Mikoto said about five o'clock that night, surprising Naruto. Normally, they did not stop training until it was closer to seven or eight.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then." Naruto said as he began to turn to walk off, but Mikoto's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Where do you think you're going?" Mikoto asked with a small smile on her face.

"I was going… home?" Naruto said, feeling a bit unnerved.

"I'm not all that good at this, and I'm pretty sure it's the guy's job… but I don't care about how I _should_ go about this. So… I want you to take me out." Mikoto said, looking away with a slight tinge of red on her cheeks. "I figured out why you defended me earlier, and it's clear that you like me. I like you too, and I think we should see where this goes."

Naruto liked the sound of that, especially the part of where she liked him too. There was still one thing that was bothering him though.

"But what if it doesn't work out?" Naruto asked, voicing his fear. "I don't want to lose my best friend, and you're my captain."

"Stop asking yourself 'what if' and start asking yourself 'what is.'" Mikoto said, looking back at Naruto with a serious look in her eyes.

Naruto allowed a soft smile to appear, and he nodded. "I suppose you're right. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Well, you could disappoint me and I could stick you in a genjutsu where Fugaku is madly in love with you, and I could keep putting you in it every time you escaped." Mikoto said while walking away from the training ground. Glancing back she asked, "Are you coming?"

Naruto was frozen in horror for a few seconds, but he snapped to attention when Mikoto asked if he was coming.

Moving to her side, he chuckled nervously. "So where are we going?"

"Do I have to do everything?" Mikoto asked with an amused look on her face.

* * *

As with all things in a ninja village, everyone knew that Naruto and Mikoto had begun dating the day after their first date.

Another thing that had become public knowledge that same day was that Naruto and Fugaku had had a confrontation several hours prior to the former's date with Mikoto. No one knew the specifics of it though. It was an open secret, really. Everyone knew about it, but no one verbally acknowledged it. Of course, that made one wonder how it got out to begin with if no one acknowledged it.

Oh well… that was just one of the mysteries of life.

* * *

Author's Note: I apologize for the decline of quality that will likely be noticeable in the last four chapters, the first of which is this one.

Ah, you probably don't know, do you? I should explain now. Second Chance, as this fic is currently known as, will end at Chapter 15. I intend on writing the sequel (the last 6 years of the war) sometime this summer. I have various reasons for that, but the main ones are that I am losing interest in this due to a lack of inspiration, I want the manga to progress farther before I get into the other fronts of the war, and I think a break from time travel would be for the best for now. I've had to force myself to write all but maybe three chapters of this fic.

Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing. I will be posting Chapters 13, 14, and 15 shortly.


	13. The Evaluations

**13. The Evaluations**

Naruto was standing inside of a building that he had never expected to enter ever again in his life. That building was a tower in the center of Training Ground Number Forty-Four, also known as the Forest of Death. In fact, he was standing right outside of the room where the preliminary round had taken place when he fought Kiba.

He smiled a small smile at the nearly forgotten memory of when he farted in Kiba's face. That was priceless.

He was brought out of his thoughts as he heard the Hokage begin to speak.

"You are all here to be evaluated for the position of jonin. While tests are not normally required to rank up from chunin, things are different in war times. I must make sure you are all ready. Thus, you will each be tested in three different ways. First, you will have to show that you us what you know. Second, you will have to show us what you are capable of. Third, you will have to show us what you believe." Sarutobi said.

The last part seemed to confuse everyone there.

'What we believe?' Naruto thought. It made no sense to him either.

"You will each be tested individually. Do not be surprised if it takes thirty minutes per person to take this test. That's part of the reason that we are here at six in the morning. With the sixteen of you that are taking the test this time around, it should only take about eight hours in total. After that, there will be a small ceremony in front of the Administration Building for those that become jonin." Sarutobi said. "Now, the first person is…."

* * *

Five hours later, Minato walked out of the room, looking weak. It appeared as though he had just run around the entire village a few times.

"How'd it go?" Naruto asked when Minato approached them.

"It was… difficult. I can't see anything more than that though." Minato said after a moment of thought. "In other words, you'll blow right thought it."

"Yeah, she sure will." Naruto said, putting a hand on Kushina's shoulder, surprising her. "I'm sure my little cousin won't have any problems whatsoever."

Minato and Kushina both rolled their eyes at that. They both knew that Naruto was just trying to lighten the mood.

"So did you pass?" Naruto asked, looking at his friend and father, though the latter was sort of a big secret.

"Yeah, I'm being promoted to jonin." Minato said.

Naruto smiled at that thought. He knew that it was possible to be promoted to the rank of Special Jonin as a result of the tests. Apparently, that was what happened to Tsume Inuzuka about two hours earlier.

"That makes me your superior for now." Minato said with a small laugh.

"That honor belongs to Fugaku as well. It didn't do much for him though." Naruto said with a teasing smirk that made Minato and Kushina both laugh. They were the only ones that knew the full details of what happened. Naruto had told Minato and Mikoto had told Kushina.

The thought of his girlfriend made the blond smile. They had been dating for four months, and Naruto could not have been happier. He found that his inexperience with girls was often the source of misunderstandings between them, but he was glad for it in the long run. He would not have been willing to change anything about their relationship, even if he could have.

"Look at the bright side, Naruto. You get to be the last one to take your test. I asked about it. Kushina will be the second to last one." Minato said, earning groans from the Uzumaki shinobi, both male and female.

* * *

Nearly three hours later, Naruto was waiting impatiently for Kushina to finish her evaluation so that he could enter the room and do his own.

The evaluations appeared to be much harder than Naruto had first thought they would be. Of the fourteen shinobi that had already been evaluated, only four of them had become full jonin. Eight of them had been made special jonin, while the other two had stayed at chunin.

The doors of the room opened suddenly, breaking Naruto from his life of thought. He immediately saw Kushina, and she was smiling. Without asking, he knew that she had made it to the full rank of jonin.

"You're up next, blondie." Kushina said as she reached them and poked Naruto in the chest. She then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "You were right too. Thanks for your confidence in me."

"Any time." Naruto said with a grin. "You might not want to do that too often though. Your boyfriend, and my girlfriend, might get a bit jealous." The last part was completely teasing, and they both knew that. They saw each other as distant cousins, and their significant others were well aware of that. Plus, Minato and Naruto were arguably best friends while Mikoto and Kushina were definitely best friends.

Not letting her respond, Naruto walked past her and entered the room.

As soon as Naruto was inside the room, the doors shut, and he saw Hiruzen Sarutobi standing in the middle of the arena.

Approaching the Hokage, Naruto said, "I'm ready."

"That's good to hear. The first part of this evaluation is simple. I just want you to do a simple test. It only consists of five questions since it is important that the evaluations do not take long." Sarutobi said. He then handed a piece of paper and a pencil to Naruto.

'A question over ninjutsu, a question over genjutsu, a question over taijutsu, a question over tactics, and a question over infiltration… it's simple but effective.' Naruto thought as he read over the test.

"There isn't a desk in this room to write on, but that's only because it would get in the way of the second part of the evaluation." Sarutobi said. Few people had a problem finding something to write on as it was.

Dropping to the ground, Naruto quickly wrote out the answers to each section. The questions were actually rather simple. That might have had more to do with Mikoto's tutelage than anything, though.

_1. Name as many types of jutsu as you can._

He always loved questions that were not questions but requests or orders. Regardless, he wrote his answer.

_The three main types are ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu._

_There are also many other types, though they are usually viewed as sub-types. Those are nintaijutsu, medical ninjutsu, bunshinjutsu, collaboration jutsu, fuinjutsu, juinjutsu, hiden jutsu, jikukan ninjutsu, kekkei jutsu, kinjutsu, tensai ninjutsu, senjutsu, kenjutsu, tessenjutsu, shurikenjutsu, kusarigamajutsu, bojutsu, and various other weapon based jutsu. _

_Additionally, there are jutsu that are exclusive to a bloodline, those being kekkei genkai and dojutsu, though the latter can be implanted from an original carrier to one not from the bloodline via medical ninjutsu._

_There is also one final form of jutsu, at least that I know of. Its true nature is unknown to me, but it is kekkei tota, or bloodline expansion. The only known carriers of it were Mu, the Second Tsuchikage, and Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage._

Naruto was surprised when he saw exactly how much he had written, but he knew that it was not the time to think too deeply about it, so he moved on to the next question.

_2. Name the two ways to break genjutsu without assistance from an outside source or a dojutsu. Then, list those that genjutsu is ineffective on._

'Another question that isn't a question?' Naruto thought before he began writing.

_The first option is for the ninja to stop the flow of chakra in their body, and then apply an even stronger power to disrupt the flow of the caster's chakra. This is commonly called Genjutsu Release._

_The second option is through intense pain not caused by the genjutsu and utilizing the resulting pain to bring their senses back in order._

_Of the first two options, the latter seems more effective in most situations, or at least is the easiest._

Naruto had to think for a moment before he went on to the second part of the problem. He came up with it quickly enough though.

_Genjutsu is typically ineffective against wielders of the Sharingan or Byakugan. It has no effect against insects either._

_On a side note, there is one brand of shinobi that is completely immune to genjutsu. That brand of shinobi being a jinchuriki that acts in cooperation with his or her tailed beast._

Looking satisfied with that, Naruto moved on to the question about taijutsu. That one contained a scenario where the test taker had to face an enemy using only taijutsu. It was simple enough to answer.

He then moved on to the last two quesitons and answered them quickly. The fourth question was simply a battle scenario where one was surrounded by enemy forces, and the fifth question called for planning of how to get inside the office of a village leader and steal important documents.

Naruto answered both questions in under a minute.

Finishing the test in five minutes total, Naruto handed the form to the Hokage, who immediately looked it over.

'This kid is... impressive.' Sarutobi thought, looking at the first question.

He had expected to see medical ninjutsu, bunshinjutsu, collaboration jutsu, fuinjutsu, kenjutsu, shurikenjutsu, and bojutsu on the list, and it was. Every shinobi knew what medical ninjutsu and clone based jutsu were after all, and the basics of sword techniques, shuriken techniques, and staff techniques were also common knowledge. Given that it was Naruto taking the test, it was a no-brainer that collaboration jutsu and fuinjutsu would make their way onto the list as well.

What he had not expected were nintaijutsu,juinjutsu, hiden jutsu, jikukan ninjutsu, kekkei jutsu, kinjutsu, tensai ninjutsu, senjutsu, tessenjutsu, and kusarigamajutsu.

Nintaijutsu was an obscure art of mixing elemental chakra with taijutsu. Sarutobi did not even know of anyone that knew how to use it.

Juinjutsu was… something that he had actually hoped would not show up on any lists that day, though it had appeared on Kushina's as well. It was related to fuinjutsu, but it meant 'Cursed Seal Techniques.' His associate, Danzo Shimura, was talented in it, as was the current head of the Hyuga clan.

Despite being surprised to see it on the list, Sarutobi was not actually caught off guard by Naruto's knowledge of hiden jutsu. It was, essentially, clan jutsu. Naruto was nearly a clan-less shinobi, which meant that he was mostly unfamiliar with that area of jutsu.

The last several on the list outside of weapon based techniques had surprised Sarutobi greatly though. Jikukan ninjutsu, space-time ninjutsu… kekkei jutsu, barrier techniques… kinjutsu, forbidden techniques… tensai ninjutsu, life transferring ninjutsu… and senjutsu, sage techniques… they were unexpected.

While tessenjutsu- iron fan techniques- and kusarigamajutsu- kusarigama techniques- were not all that common to be seen listed, the others were incredibly rare. Few people even took kinjutsu into consideration when listing the types of jutsu that they knew.

Sarutobi actually felt nervous as his eyes settled back on senjutsu again. He would not have even known of senjutsu if not for Jiraiya. He needed to figure out how Naruto knew of it.

"What's the second part?" Naruto asked, breaking Sarutobi from his thoughts.

"You need to demonstrate your talents in every ninja art that you possess. For this, you will be facing none other than…." Sarutobi trailed off.

"You get to fight me."

Naruto froze at the sound of that voice. Glancing over his shoulder he saw Sakumo Hatake standing on the balcony above them.

"I have to fight the White Fang?" Naruto asked, worry clear in his tone.

"As your former captain, he will not underestimate you, and I want to see you pushed to your limit." Sarutobi said with a nod.

"This tower won't be left standing if I actually go to my limit." Naruto said with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't use _that_ power then." Sarutobi said. "When you are ready, you may begin."

The second that Sarutobi said that, Sakumo jumped from the balcony and drew his tanto, charging it with lightning chakra as he swung it down at Naruto, who threw the pencil that he was still holding at Sakumo before jumping away.

The White Fang was shocked when the pencil left a six inch long cut across his forearm where it hit him. He had not expected Naruto to use wind chakra on a pencil.

"I thought he wasn't going to overestimate me." Naruto said as he withdrew six shuriken from his holsters and threw them at Sakumo. Clapping his hands together he added, "Wind Style: Gale Palm"

The shuriken were propelled at Sakumo in a quick burst of wind, and Naruto followed it up with Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.

'I almost wish that Lord Hokage had let Orochimaru fight him.' Sakumo sighed as he jumped out of the way of the shuriken and formed the tiger hand sign. 'Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu'

'Wind Style: Gale Force' Naruto thought as he saw the incoming fire jutsu. The more powerful blast of wind that he shot at that moment completely smothered the fireball and forced Sakumo and Sarutobi to get out of the way.

'That's a new one.' Sakumo thought with a sigh. He was a lightning type and only had basic knowledge of fire jutsu. He was ill-suited to fighting Naruto, it seemed.

'Fire Style: Searing Pain' Sakumo thought as his hands flashed between three hand signs, releasing a small fireball that would erupt into a firestorm if it hit anything.

'Wind Blade' Naruto thought as he swung outward with his right index and middle fingers, releasing a blade of wind that sliced the fireball in half. 'Wind Style: Gale Force'

In an instant, Naruto's jutsu cancel Sakumo's and vice versa.

'I better stall him for a bit.' Sakumo thought as he flashed through the handsigns for a genjutsu. 'Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death'

In an instant, Naruto felt and saw a tree coiling around his legs from the ground, keeping him in place. He quickly bit his lip until it bled and jumped away as the genjutsu faded.

'He can detect B-rank genjutsu and rid himself of the illusion quickly.' Sakumo mused.

'Water Style: Raging Waves' Sakumo thought a second later as he formed three hand signs. He then began to spew a powerful jet of water at Naruto, who countered with Wind Style: Wind Stream.

From the side, Sarutobi was impressed by Naruto's use of his ninjutsu. It seemed that he had no trouble with ninjutsu, though he still had five wind jutsu that he had not used yet.

'It's time to show him I'm not playing around.' Sakumo thought as he kept the jutsu up and began forming additional hand signs. As he finished the new set of hand signs, his hands were charged with pure white lightning. 'Let's see how he handles a water and lightning combo, with the addition of my white chakra.'

In an instant, the white lightning arced off of Sakumo's hands and struck the water jutsu, combining with it and not only pushing Naruto's attack back but completely dissipating it as well. The jet of lightning charged water slammed into Naruto and brought him down to his knees in pain. He did not make a single sound of pain though.

'Wind Style: Great Vacuum Sphere' Naruto thought as he made the tiger and dog hand signs. It was slower than usual due to his body still being affected by the lightning jutsu, but he was able to use it nonetheless. In an instant, he launched a massive sphere of wind chakra at Sakumo.

'Holy shit…!' Sakumo thought as he channeled chakra to his feet and used it to jump over the attack.

'Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere' Naruto thought as he formed the dog hand sign immediately after Sakumo started to jump. In an instant, he exhaled fifteen small spheres of wind chakra at the mid-air Sakumo in rapid succession.

For good measure, Naruto formed the hand signs of tiger, rabbit, dog, ram, and dragon. He immediately used the Wind Style: Wind Cutter once the hand signs were complete, sending a blade of wind at Sakumo from behind.

All of the attacks struck Sakumo, and the White Fang began to glow with electricity.

'He used the Lightning Style: Shadow Clone Jutsu?' Naruto thought, mentally cursing due to the fact that he thought his sensei created the technique.

"You're very good." Sakumo said from behind Naruto.

In an instant, Naruto's hands flashed between four hand signs, and he spun around, exhaling a single large blade of wind from his mouth. It was the Wind Style: Vacuum Wave.

Sakumo quickly canceled the jutsu out as he send a wave of fire through his tanto as he used his ability to create fire chakra. While he was not as strong with it as he was with lightning chakra, he did have some skill with it.

'Wind Style: Serial Vacuum Waves' Naruto thought as he formed the dog hand sign. He proceeded to move his head in sweeping arcs as he exhaled blades of wind from his mouth.

Sakumo was forced to use the Body Flicker Technique to dodge the attacks, and he could not help but mentally praise his former subordinate. The boy did not look as though his chakra was even half exhausted yet.

"Naruto, do you have any more jutsu?" Sarutobi asked.

"No, I spent most of my time with taijutsu and genjutsu.' Naruto said as he attempted to stand up.

"It would be unfair to make you fight Sakumo using taijutsu after his lightning jutsu hit you, so I'll trust that you are capable of fighting a jonin using taijutsu." Sarutobi said. He had already spoken with Mikoto about it, so he believed Naruto on that subject.

"It is time for the last part of this evaluation to take place. I have a sensor type shinobi in this room, and he can tell if you are lying. What do you value most?"

"Peace" Naruto answered without hesitation. "I value true peace over everything."

Sarutobi glanced back at his hidden ANBU and saw a nod.

"Congratulations, Jonin Uzumaki." Sarutobi said, making Naruto's heart skip a beat. It had been a position that he had wanted for so long, and he finally had it.

With that, Naruto began to walk away, knowing that his friends would want to celebrate that night.


	14. A Long Awaited Conversation

**15. A Long Awaited Conversation**

Naruto looked down at the sleeping Uchiha in his bed the morning after their… celebration.

He could not stop a perverted giggle coming out at that thought, and he sighed. It seemed that Jiraiya had rubbed off on him more than he had thought.

Naruto could not help but smile at the previous night, despite his attempts not to think about it too much. It was very… special, to say the least. He had enjoyed himself, as did Mikoto. He had a feeling that she would be sore when she woke up. They had ended up spending over four hours in bed together before they finally called it a night. That was when they got dressed in their night clothes- Naruto in his pajamas and Mikoto in one of Naruto's shirts- and had gone to sleep.

A sliver of guilt seemed to worm its way into Naruto's mood at that moment. That bit of guilt came from the fact that he had not yet revealed his secrets to Mikoto. He knew that he would have to one day, but he could not bring himself to do so yet.

A sudden appearance of chakra outside Naruto's bedroom made him slip out of bed and remove a kunai from underneath his mattress. He reacted so quickly and smoothly that the sleeping Mikoto did not stir at all.

Naruto relaxed his stance when he actually saw the intruder in the doorway. It was a member of the ANBU Black Ops.

'I guess the old man wants to talk to me.' Naruto thought as he approached the ANBU.

Seeing that Naruto was headed his way, the ANBU walked towards the front room.

Once Naruto reached his front room, the ANBU said, "Lord Hokage wishes to speak with you immediately. He said that you have a bargain to fulfill."

"Wait here. I'm going to write a note telling her that I have business to take care of with the Hokage" Naruto said. There was no request in his tone, and the ANBU seemed to realize that immediately. After all, he did not even follow Naruto when the blond jonin went back into the bed room.

Hastily writing a note and putting it on his side of the bed so that Mikoto would find it when she woke up, Naruto prepared to meet with the Hokage. Thus, he dressed in his full ninja attire, even putting on his flak jacket.

Once he was ready, Naruto stepped back into the front room and looked at the ANBU carefully.

"Are you prepared now?" the ANBU asked. His body language told Naruto that he was wary of him.

'He's intelligent, at least.' Naruto thought.

"Yes, I am ready. I'll come with you." Naruto answered.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto was sitting in a semi-comfortable chair across the desk from Hiruzen Sarutobi, the most powerful Hokage in the history of the Hidden Leaf Village.

"I promised that I would give you any and all the answers that you want, and I am ready. Just keep in mind that killing me will prevent you from me from answering your questions." Naruto said, surprising the Third Hokage.

"For what reason would I kill you?" Sarutobi asked, mildly amused.

"You aren't going to like all of my answers. You probably won't like most of my answers, actually." Naruto replied, sparking the Hokage's curiosity further.

"I'll be the judge of that." Sarutobi said as he lit his pipe. "Tell me the truth this time. What is your connection to the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox?"

"I was the third jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox." Naruto answered immediately. He was surprised to see that the Hokage was not shocked in the least.

"You are indeed from the future then, are you not?" Sarutobi asked, earning a slow nod from Naruto. "Apparently, my student is going to write perverted novels in the future."

Naruto's eyes widened as Hiruzen Sarutobi laid the last book Jiraiya ever wrote on the desk between them. He had not realized that he still had it. It was what they used to decode Jiraiya's message about Pain before he died.

"Now, I am required to ask this… how did you travel back in time? You appear to be unfamiliar with space-time ninjutsu from what I observed when you first arrived here." Sarutobi asked.

"I died. The Nine-Tails stole the last of my chakra when I was using its chakra. Some disembodied voice told me that I had a greater destiny to achieve still though. I'm guessing that it sent me back, and I have some of the fox's chakra still because I was using its chakra when I died." Naruto answered with a sigh.

"I believe you." Sarutobi said. It seemed unlikely, but it was the only option that he knew of that even sounded possible. "Your parents are Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, are they not?"

"You did a blood test on me then?" Naruto asked, confirming the Hokage's suspicions. "But yes, my parents were the Fourth Hokage and the second jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox."

That caught the Hokage's attention.

"Minato Namikaze was the Fourth Hokage?" Sarutobi asked, shocked. He had expected it to be Orochimaru, or maybe even Jiraiya.

"Orochimaru went off the deep end and began experimenting on citizens of the Land of Fire and this village." Naruto said, answering the unspoken question. "He abandoned the village after he was refused as the Hokage."

Though he was unhappy to hear something of that nature about his most prized student, Sarutobi tried to remain hopeful. "Is there a chance that he can be redeemed?"

Thinking of Zabuza Momochi, Gaara of the Desert, and Pain of the Rinnegan, Naruto said, "Absolutely"

Thought Naruto hated the Orochimaru of his time, he refused to let that color his judgement. Orochimaru might not be completely beyond redemption yet, after all.

"Do you know the specifics of his… madness?" Sarutobi asked with a sigh.

"I only know that he experimented on a bunch of kids with the DNA of the First Hokage. One of them survived and obtained the First Hokage's kekkei genkai." Naruto replied.

'He has the Wood Element of the First Hokage?' Sarutobi thought, remembering the very young boy that had been found shortly before the start of the war. It was not old enough to start his ninja training, so such a kekkei genkai would not have surfaced yet.

"Do you know any relevent about this war?" Sarutobi asked, deciding to get a little more information about Naruto's world in general.

"I only know that Sasori of the Red Sand sparked the war by capturing the Third Kazekage. Apparently my father made a name for himself as the Yellow Flash in the war and was feared by all enemies of the village." Naruto answered.

'That's not really that useful.' Sarutobi thought sadly. He could not tell the Hidden Sand Village how the war began due to the fact that it sounded incredibly suspicious. Anyone who heard it would think it was a ploy.

"When did the war end?" Sarutobi asked.

"It ended six years from now. I was born a year after it ended on the tenth of October." Naruto said. Then he realized something important. "I know one more thing about the war. Sakumo Hatake committed suicide one year from now after he was disgraced. He failed a critical mission to save the lives of his comrades."

"I'd say that that is important." Sarutobi deadpanned. He knew that he would need to keep that information in mind. He refused to lose Sakumo. He was a strong ninja and a good friend. "How did you become the jinchuriki?"

"I only know what Mom told me through an imprint in the seal that was used. An ANBU and your wife were the ones to deliver me while a squad of ANBU protected them. My dad was there to make sure the seal did not fail. Unfortunately, no one counted on Madara Uchiha showing up." Naruto said.

Sarutobi's pipe fell from his mouth at that.

"He killed all of the ANBU and your wife. He then took my hostage and forced my dad away from Mom so that he could release the Nine-Tails and attack the village with it." Naruto continued. "Mom survived the release of the Nine-Tails, though she was weakened considerably by it. Dad left me with Mom while he went to confront Madara and take care of the Nine-Tails."

Sarutobi could not help but feel anger at the thought of Biwako dying.

"Apparently Dad took the Nine-Tails from Madara's control and wounded the Uchiha, forcing him to leave. Dad then got the fox away from the village and used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to take half of the Nine-Tails' chakra with him to the stomach of the God of Death. In his last moments, he sealed the remaining half of the Nine-Tails within me along with an imprint of him and Mom. His imprint was meant to restore my seal if I reached eight tails, and Mom's imprint was meant to help me master the fox's chakra. I actually ended up doing so too." Naruto said, finishing the tale.

"I don't know what's more worrying… the fact that you claim that Madara Uchiha is alive or the fact that I know for a fact that you are telling the truth. No one is skilled enough to tell such a bald faced lie to me." Sarutobi said as his shoulders slumped. He was incredibly worried at that point. He knew that he needed to hear more of what Naruto knew though. "What can you tell me about the events that occurred prior to you becoming a ninja?"

Naturally, Naruto told Sarutobi about the Hyuga Affair where Hinata was nearly kidnapped. And then, he told him about the biggest thing to happen in his lifetime prior to becoming a genin: the Uchiha Massacre. He made sure to tell Sarutobi what Madara told him about it as well.

Sarutobi's eyes widened to a considerable size when he heard that the son of Fugaku Uchiha and Mikoto Uchiha massacred his clan alongside Madara Uchiha on orders of his advisors.

"Did anything interesting happen other than those two events?" Sarutobi asked.

"Not until the Chunin Exams that I took part in." Naruto answered.

"You were a genin of this village?" Sarutobi asked curiously.

"I was in the same graduating class as the youngest son of Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha, along with the sons of Shikaku Nara, Choza Akimichi, Shibi Aburame, and Tsume Inuzuka. The daughters of Hiashi Hyuga and Inoichi Yamanaka were in my class as well." Naruto replied. "My sensei was Kakashi Hatake."

That caused Sarutobi to start laughing. There was a certain irony to what Naruto said.

"Was Kakashi a famous ninja like his dad?" Sarutobi asked.

"He was revered as Kakashi of the Sharingan, the Copy Ninja." Naruto said, shocking Sarutobi once again. "He had a Sharingan implanted after one of his eyes was damaged. He copied over a thousand jutsu apparently."

"I'd like to hear everything you can tell me from you becoming a ninja to the Chunin Exams. I'd like to understand you." Sarutobi said.

Nodding, Naruto began to recount the Mizuki Incident, Kakashi's Bell Test, and the mission to the Land of Waves. He then moved on and began telling Sarutobi everything that he could remember about the Chunin Exams, including his fight with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. He stopped at the start of the invasion though.

"Why did you stop?" Sarutobi asked. The story was getting very interesting.

"Do you really want to hear about your death?" Naruto asked.

That made Sarutobi freeze. He understood Naruto's hesitation all of the sudden. "I need to hear it."

"You fought Orochimaru, and he used Summoning: Impure World Resurrection to bring back the First Hokage and the Second Hokage. From what I heard, you sealed their souls along with yours in the stomach of the God of Death, and you sealed away Orochimaru's arms as well. I did not see your fight though. I was busy fighting Gaara, the jinchuriki of the One-Tail." Naruto said.

He then recounted his fight with Gaara, surprising Sarutobi even further.

What truly surprised Sarutobi, though, was when Naruto explained how he managed to get Tsunade as the Fifth Hokage along with Jiraiya.

Hours passed as Naruto finished telling Sarutobi about Sasuke's defection, the failed mission to retrieve him, the two and a half year training trip with Jiraiya, mission to rescue Gaara, the second failed mission to retrieve Sasuke, Asuma's death at the hands of Hidan, the death of Kakuzu and the decapitation of Hidan, the attempt to find Itachi after Orochimaru's death, Jiraiya's death at the hands of his former student, his training with the toads in senjutsu, Pain's attack on the village, his fight with Pain, Danzo Shimura nearly becoming Hokage, the Five Kage Summit, Danzo's death at Sasuke's hands, and finally Naruto's false mission to Turtle Island, complete with his training and his death.

At the end of it, Sarutobi found that he understood Naruto to a better extent, but that did not mean that he completely understood him either.

"You've lived a hard life." Sarutobi finally said. "I believe that I know enough now. You may leave… but you must avoid telling anyone else about this. It would not be a good idea for too many people to be aware."

Naruto nodded in understanding and agreement.

"I'm glad that we are on the same side." Naruto said before walking out of the office.

He barely heard the reply of, "I am too… I am too…."

As soon as Naruto was outside of the Administration Building, Minato Namikaze ran in front of him.

"Wow, that's great timing. I was looking for you." Minato said with a grin. "You helped me out big time nearly a year ago when I was trying to pop that rubber ball. I want to return the favor."

"What are you saying?" Naruto asked, completely caught off guard.

"This is," Minato began as he lifted a hand to the height of his chest and began to form a sphere of spiraling chakra. He then added, "the Rasengan. I want to teach it to you."

'That's no fair. He can already use it one handed.' Naruto thought, slightly annoyed that his father was so talented. He hid it well though.

"It would be an honor." Naruto said with a grin.

"Let's go then." Minato said as he began to lead Naruto to a training ground.

At that moment, Naruto had to admit that his life could not get much better. He was good friends with the two people that should have been his parents, and he was dating a wonderful girl. How could things get any better?

Naruto knew that not everything would stay pleasant though. He would be redeployed in a month, after all.

'I'll worry about that later.' Naruto decided.

And with that, he followed after Minato.

_To be continued..._

* * *

Author's Note: And that is a wrap. This is the end of Part I of the Second Chance Duology. Part II will be coming out in the Summer of '11.

I never planned on it being a duology, to be honest. I was going to do it in one shot. I decided against that recently though. I want to let the manga progress more before I get into any more details of the war, to be honest. I also am tired of writing this fic. I've been forcing myself to write, though I'm still mostly happy with it. And yes, the sequel will be written no matter what, and I will be the one to write it regardless of how I feel. It won't be as long as I originally planned though. 750k words for the series was unrealistic to begin with though.

But anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed this, which is currently the second most reviewed Naruto/Mikoto fic. Yes, I know what you're thinking. How is there such a highly reviewed fic of this rating? Well, there is one Naruto/Mikoto fic with like 390 reviews, or something like that. This might surpass it, but this is, at the time of my posting, the second highest reviewed fic for the pairing. I'm sure G3rMan will surpass it in reviews with the Blonde Uchiha though.

And on one final note, I will be working on a new fic shortly. It is highly likely that it will be banishment or exile. I won't post anything until the site is working correctly though.

Edit: After six hours, this is officially the most reviewed Naruto/Mikoto fic. It just tied with "A Very Long Vacation", which I have never read. But anyways, thanks for all the reviews. I don't doubt that this will hit 400 reviews soon, which has long since been a good of mine.


	15. Author's Note

Yo, this is Advent of Shadows once again.

As you no doubt know, this is a completed story. Thus, this is naturally an author's note chapter. The chapter title should have made that clear though.

Anyways, this is being posted to inform you that the rewrite of Second Chance has been posted.

Now, try to keep in mind that I'm not replacing the chapters of this story with rewritten versions. I have posted the rewrite as a completely new story with the title of "Consequences."

Though it will essentially be a rewrite, it will be very different at the same time.

The rewrite will also likely be the last project I do on this site.

-Advent of Shadows


	16. Original Fiction Update

I bet you were surprised to see an update of any sort be posted on this, especially after I said I was leaving fanfiction.

You see, I announced that I was going to start working on original fiction, and quite a few people wanted to know where they could read it, even after I revealed that I would be self-publishing.

Well, my first book, Through the Flames, has gone live. It's only available as an e-book for now through Amazon's website, along with Smashwords and B&N.

On my profile, I have links to the book on Amazon US, Amazon UK, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble.

Anyone who is interested in reading it can get it from either site fairly cheap.

And I'm sure that someone suspects that they won't be able to read if since they don't have a Kindle or a Nook. Well, that's not a problem. Amazon and B&N both have free reading apps. I've never really checked out the Nook apps, but I know there are Kindle apps for PC, Mac, Blackberry, iPod Touch, iPad, and Droid phones.

If you still don't won't to deal with an app, then feel free to check it out on Smashwords. You can get it in pretty much any format through Smashwords. You can even read it straight from the website if you do it.

Anyways, it's an epic fantasy novel and is the first book of a nine book series. I'll leave you with the blurb now.

_Caleb was just a simple hunter's apprentice. He wanted nothing more than a simple life and was content to live out the days of his life beneath the green bowers of the sun-dappled forest. But when he returns home to find his village massacred and his family dead, the whispered words of his dying father hurl him onto a path of blood and vengeance._

_In his epic quest for revenge, Caleb will discover that the mightiest of heroes, like the strongest of metals, can only be forged within the hottest fires and under the greatest pressures. His is a destiny which will forever change the face of Arcadia. It is a destiny that can only be reached in one way:_

_Through the Flames._

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Oh... by the way, I've decided to return to fanfiction.

It should be fairly unexpected, given the things I've said previously. I have my reasons though, so feel free to disregard any author's notes of other stories that contradict this.

Anyways... starting August 1st*, you can expect about two chapters of my newest story every week.

*I might start posting sooner than that. It really just depends. I want to write at least five chapters before I post anything. We all know how annoying it is when I abandon a fic a few chapters in.


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